Lipcius, Owings Homer as OKC Opens Series with 12-3 Win

Oklahoma City Baseball Club — 12

Reno Aces — 3

Tuesday, May 21, 2024 – Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark – Oklahoma City, Okla.

Game Summary: Andre Lipcius and Chris Owings both homered and the Oklahoma City Baseball Club scored six runs in the fifth inning of a 12-3 win against the Reno Aces Tuesday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Lipcius quickly put Oklahoma City ahead in the series opener hitting a solo home run in the first inning out to left field that landed on the Miller Lite Landing for his league-leading 13th home run of the season. Oklahoma City (26-20) scored three runs in the second inning when Austin Gauthier hit a two-run triple, followed by a RBI single by Lipcius for a 4-0 lead. The Aces (21-25) had two runners on in third inning with two outs, but Owings made a sliding catch on a ball hit to right field by Adrian Del Castillo to end the inning and preserve the four-run lead. Owings then hit a solo homer in the fourth inning for a 5-0 OKC advantage. Albert Almora Jr. connected on a three-run home run in the fifth inning that ended up being Reno’s lone runs of the night and cut OKC’s lead to two runs. OKC went on to load the bases in the fifth inning. A walk by Kody Hoese then brought in a run before Hunter Feduccia followed with a bases-clearing triple for a 9-3 lead. Jonathan Araúz and Gauthier later added back-to-back RBI singles for an 11-3 advantage. A RBI single by Feduccia in the sixth inning scored the final run of the night.

Of Note:

-Oklahoma City has won three consecutive games for the first time in May and for the first time since a season-best five-game winning streak April 21-26…Oklahoma City has won three straight home games as well as five of the last six games at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark…Tuesday’s win also snapped a stretch of three straight losses in series openers for OKC.

-Oklahoma City scored 12 runs for the team’s highest scoring game since a 22-3 win May 9 in Sugar Land…The six runs OKC scored in the fifth inning marked the team’s highest scoring inning since OKC scored eight runs in the eighth inning of the same 22-3 win in Sugar Land…OKC finished Tuesday’s game with 16 hits and now has 28 hits over the last two games after being held to a combined 25 hits — six or less per game — in the five previous games…All nine batters in OKC’s lineup finished with a hit Tuesday and five players had multi-hit games.

-Andre Lipcius went 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBI. He moved into a tie for the PCL lead with his 13th home run of the season, also tying his career-high mark for homers set last season. Lipcius now has three straight multi-hit games and has hit safely in five straight games, going 10-for-22 with three doubles and three homers. Lipcius has also hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games, batting 18-for-45 (.400) with 10 extra-base hits, 12 RBI and 12 runs scored. He has reached base in a season-best 11 straight games and has four homers in his last eight games.

-Austin Gauthier went 3-for-5 with a triple, three RBI and scored a run. Through his first 13 Triple-A games, Gauthier is 16-for-49 (.327) with six extra-base hits and five multi-hit games, including three games with three hits.

-Hunter Feduccia went 3-for-5 with a double, scored two runs and finished with a game-high four RBI. He has hit safely in seven of his last eight games, going 13-for-32 (.406) with three doubles, one triple, a home run and 12 RBI. Tuesday was his third game of the season with at least four RBI.

-Chris Owings went 2-for-4 with his fourth home run of the season, a walk and game-high three runs scored while Jonathan Araúz went 2-for-4 with a RBI…James Outman, in his first game with Oklahoma City since being optioned by the Los Angeles Dodgers, reached base four times, going 1-for-2 with a double, two walks, was hit by a pitch and scored two runs.

-Four OKC pitchers combined to hold the Aces scoreless in eight of nine innings and limited Reno to three runs on six hits. Starting pitcher Ben Casparius (2-0) pitched 5.0 innings and was credited with his second win of the season, while relievers Gus Varland, Ricky Vanasco and Jack Dreyer combined to close out the game with four scoreless frames.

Next Up: The series between Oklahoma City and Reno continues at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Single-game tickets for OKC games through June are available now at okcbaseball.com/tickets. Live radio coverage of each OKC Baseball Club game begins 15 minutes before first pitch on AM 1340 "The Game," 1340thegame.com and through the free iHeartRadio or MiLB First Pitch apps.