Aces slug five homers in 8-7 win over Salt Lake Bees

SALT LAKE CITY – The Reno Aces moved to 2-0 in the young 2021 campaign, slugging their way to an 8-7 win over the Salt Lake Bees. Christian Lopes smacked two home runs in his Aces debut, and Josh Reddick fell a triple short of the cycle.

After a solo shot in the bottom of the first put Salt Lake up 1-0, the Aces would answer in the top of the third. Lopes, in his first at bat as an Ace, drove a ball over the right-field fence for his first homer of the season.

In the very next at bat, Jamie Ritchie got to third base after a double and an error put him 90 feet from giving the Aces their first lead of the night. Two batters later, Ritchie would score standing up off of a wild pitch to give the Aces the 2-1 lead.

Then in the top of the fourth, the balls started carrying. Seth Beer opened it up with a homer on the first pitch of the inning. The bomb was the first of his Triple-A career, after hitting a pair of doubles in his debut last night. Immediately after, Domingo Leyba smoked a homer to left field to make it 4-1. Last night, Leyba led Reno with three RBIs including his first home run of the season.

Then Lopes smacked his second homer of the night, making it 5-1 and marking three home runs in the fourth inning.

Not to be outdone, Reddick would hit his first home run with the Aces in the very next inning to make it 6-1 Reno. Trayce Thompson’s single in the fifth inning was the first Aces hit not to go for extra bases. It snapped a streak of eight-straight extra base hits to start the game.

Salt Lake would tally four in the bottom of the sixth, making it a one-run game at 6-5, before the Aces answered again in the top of the seventh.

Another double by Beer scored Reddick, and Beer would slide across home plate after Stuart Fairchild singled to make it 8-5 heading into the home half of the seventh.

Two games into his Triple-A career, Beer is six for nine with four runs, three doubles, a home run and two RBIs.

Salt Lake would pick up another run in the bottom of the seventh to bring it back within two, at 8-6.

In the bottom of the eighth, Carlos Navas entered in relief and sat down all three batters on strikes for a perfect inning in his Aces debut, sending the game to the ninth with a Reno lead.

Ryan Buchter entered in the bottom of the ninth and earned the save, allowing one run to score making it an 8-7 final. Buchter’s save is his first of the year.

The two teams will go at it again tomorrow, as Zach Lee gets the nod for the Aces, with the first pitch scheduled for 5:35 p.m. PT from Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City. A Reno win would put the club at 3-0 to start the season for the first time in team history.