Gavello Bunt Single Gives Sacramento Walk Off Victory for Fifth Straight Win

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A pair of home runs from Thomas Gavello and Luis Matos helped the Sacramento River Cats erase a two-run deficit after the seventh, and though their lead slipped in the top of the ninth, Gavello played the hero and pushed Sacramento to a 4-3 victory over the Sugar Land Space Cowboys with a walk-off bunt.

Gavello drove in three of the four River Cats (23-15/59-54) on the night, the first two of which came in the sixth inning. Sacramento had not had a base runner through the first five innings, but the River Cats managed to break up the perfect game bid by Space Cowboys (14-21/53-57) when Sam Huff hit a leadoff double to get the inning started.

That allowed Gavello to deliver in the clutch, hammering a 1-1 offering deep over the wall in left field to tie the game. Just an inning later and Sacramento had captured their first lead of the contest, as Matos needed just one pitch to blast his fifth homer of the Triple-A season out to left center that put the River Cats in front by one.

However, the lead briefly slipped in the top of the ninth when Ryan Watson (W, 3-2) allowed a pair of knocks that turned into the game-tying run, with Kenedy Corona picking up the RBI on a single up the middle.

With their final set of swings, the River Cats saw Sam Huff nearly end the game with one swing when he hit a ball to the right center gap that hit over the fence but below the home-run line, but since the ball stayed in the park he cruised into third with a triple. Just one batter later Gavello came in clutch, dropping down a perfect bunt up the first base line that was unable to be picked up by the Space Cowboys as pinch runner Hunter Bishop scampered home for the win.

That marked the fifth walk-off win of the season for the River Cats, all of which have come consecutively to move them to 5-1 in such games. The last walk-off win for Sacrament came at the beginning of this series when Dre Gilbert ripped a liner into the right-center gap for a single.

Though he was credited with the blown save, his fourth of the year, he still claimed his third win of the season. Keaton Winn earned his first hold of the season with a clean eighth inning and one strikeout. Mason Black drew the start but walked four and allowed two runs on four hits with three strikeouts in a season-low-tying three innings.

Gavello and Huff each finished with a pair of knocks in the game and totaled all three of the Sacramento extra-base hits in the contest, with Huff tallying a double and triple while Gavello hit the big fly. Matos’ homer was his only hit of the night, finishing 1-for-4.

The win moves the River Cats lead in the series to 5-0, and they have the chance to earn their first ever six-game series sweep if they can win in the series finale on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. from Sutter Health Park.