Sacramento Silenced by El Paso in Series Opener
EL PASO, Texas – The bats for the Sacramento River Cats could not find a timely hit on Tuesday, stranding the bases loaded twice as they wound up on the wrong side of a 3-0 shutout by the El Paso Chihuahuas in their series opener. Each of the first 10
EL PASO, Texas – The bats for the Sacramento River Cats could not find a timely hit on Tuesday, stranding the bases loaded twice as they wound up on the wrong side of a 3-0 shutout by the El Paso Chihuahuas in their series opener.
Each of the first 10 River Cats (11-11) failed to reach base, and though a Marco Luciano walk snapped that streak with one out in the fourth, he was quickly left on base after a pair of groundouts. Sacramento lined consecutive one out singles and eventually filled the bases with a walk, but a strikeout and flyout helped Chihuahuas (10-12) starter Jared Kollar (2-0) escape damage.
After a quite sixth, the River Cats threatened to score again in the seventh with Logan Porter’s second knock of the game and a pair of walks, but once more El Paso kept a zero in the Sacramento run column after a lineout brought an end to the frame.
Meanwhile, the Chihuahuas scored twice in the third, prominently featuring a pair of old River Cats when Sacramento’s 2024 Best Offensive Player Trenton Brooks ripped a double down the right field line. Scoring on the play was Bryce Johnson, who is second in Sacramento franchise history with 79 steals and reached on a single, along with Clay Dungan who drew a walk.
Johnson added an insurance run for the Chihuahuas in the bottom of the eighth when he hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot to center field against Joey Lucchesi who had just entered the contest.
Charged with the loss was Carson Seymour (0-2), who allowed two runs in the contest after allowing just two runs through his first four starts. Additionally, Seymour issued five walks over 5.0 innings after walking five in his previous 18.0 combined innings.
All four Sacramento hits in the game were singles, the second straight game they were held without an extra-base hit. Two of those hits belonged to Porter, his fourth multi-hit game of the year. Victor Bericoto also added a single, and is 3-for-7 in two games since being promoted to Triple-A.
The River Cats will look to level the series in game two of the set on Wednesday at 11:05 a.m. (PT) from Southwest University Park.