River Cats Homer Again but Aces Prevail

RENO, Nev. – An early run helped the Sacramento River Cats hold the first edge in Saturday’s showdown with the Reno Aces, but despite Sacramento homering in a sixth straight game, Reno scored 11 unanswered runs which helped power them past the River Cats by a 17-3 final.

Scoring first for the first time in the series were the River Cats (21-23), putting runners at the edges just three batters into the game against the Aces’ (27-17) starter Blake Walston (5-1), currently the No. 6 prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. The first of those two hit was a double down the left field line from David Villar, and after he moved to third on a knock by Colton Welker, scored on an RBI fielder’s choice by Clint Coulter where Reno second baseman Buddy Kennedy airmailed the ball into left field.

However, the Aces raised the stakes beginning in each of their first two trips to the dish, loading the bases with no outs in both of the first two innings against Sacramento starter Drew Strotman (1-5). Both innings resulted in a trio of runs for Reno, which included RBI singles for P.J. Higgins and Diego Castillo in the first while Phillip Evans delivered a two-RBI single during the second.

The Aces made it three straight innings with multiple runs when they dropped a five-spot in the third, with Evans driving in another two runs on a double down the right-field line while Higgins added another RBI knock with a hard-hit infield single.

A pair of walks helped the River Cats get a run back in the top of the fourth, coming when an attempted double play by the Aces resulted in a wide throw over to first after the initial out, leading Ricardo Genoves to cross the plate for Sacramento’s second run.

Despite that run and Will Wilson blasting a solo homer in the top of the ninth to give him the active Sacramento lead with four on the season, it was not enough to keep up with the Aces hot bats. Reno tacked on five insurance runs in the home half of the seventh, further extending their advantage before adding one final tally in the bottom of the eighth leading to the 17-3 final.

For the River Cats, it was their largest margin of defeat this season, though they did extend their season-best consecutive-game home run streak to six contests. Sacramento has left the yard at least once in each game against Reno as well as the series finale against Salt Lake last week, matching their longest such streak from last season.

Villar had the only multi-hit game for Sacramento with his double in the first and single in the single in the fifth, closing the game 2-for-4 with a run scored. Five others collected hits including Luis Matos (1-4), though he just missed a multi-hit game when a sinking liner that he hit to right field was ultimately ruled an error, as well as Genoves who extended his active hitting streak to six games (7-for-20, .350) with a single in the sixth.

Additionally, the quartet of Welker, Coulter, Wilson and Matt Beaty were each 1-for-4 with Wilson driving himself in on the blast. Tossing scoreless relief appearances were Luke Jackson, who went 0.2 innings with a pair of walks and a strikeout, his second with the River Cats, while Cole Waites faced just one over the minimum while working the seventh.

Picking up the win was Walston, though the River Cats knocked him for a pair of runs on six hits over five innings pitched with three walks and four strikeouts.

This six-game set between the River Cats and the Aces wraps up with the series finale tomorrow at 1:05 p.m. from Greater Nevada Field.