RENO- With the Aces having a commanding seven and a half game lead in the Pacific North Division with over the Tacoma Rainiers thanks in part from taking the first two games in this four game series against Tacoma. Reno looked to distance themselves even more from Tacoma on Monday night.
The Aces got a very quick start with the bats in the first inning behind two RBI doubles from Tony Abreu (scoring Evan Frey and Angel Berroa), and Cole Gillespie (scoring Abreu) off of Tacoma starter LHP Luke French (8-8, 6.12 ERA) for an eary 3-0 lead.
Reno's starter RHP Gaby Hernandez (4-6, 6.49 ERA) with the early 3-0 cushion gave up one run in the 2nd inning to make the score 3-1 entering the bottom of the 2nd. The Aces continued their assult on French and the Rainiers by scoring two more runs on a pair of RBI singles by Angel Berroa and Tony Abreu bringing in Konrad Schmidt and Mark Hallberg respectively.
The Rainiers however, would stay within reach of the Aces by scoring two runs in the 4th inning on a monster solo shot by Mike Wilson and an RBI single by Sean Kazmar that scored Chris Gimenez making the score 5-3 Reno.
The game was cut short for Luke French as the Aces knocked him out in the 5th inning with three straight singles by Gillespie, Tracy, and Langerhans. Forrest Snow came on to relieve French. French went 4+ innings giving up 6 runs, 12 hits on 4 strikouts with 2 walks. Reno would have wanted a lot more than just the one run they got across in the 5th inning as they had the bases loaded with no one out. Reno led the game 6-3.
Aces' starter Hernandez was relieved by Brian Stokes in the 6th inning. Hernandez went 5 innings giving up 3 runs on 4 hits with 5 strikouts and 3 walks (one hit batsman).
The Rainiers would not go away as they scored one run in the 6th, and could have gotten a lot more but Tacoma left the bases loaded. The run made the score 6-4 keeping the Rainiers within reach, and they got a little help in the 7th from the third pitcher of the game for Reno Esmerling Vasquez as Micheal Saunders for Tacoma singled, stole second, got over to third when Chris Gimenez flew out to right, and scored when Vasquez threw a wild pitch making the score 6-5 bringing Tacoma within one run.
The game remained close (6-5 Reno) as it entered the 9th inning, Ryan Cook the Aces' closer came in to close things out. It did not start out well for Cook and the Aces as the Rainiers started out the inning with back-to-back singles by Saunders and Gimenez.
Gimenez's single put Saunders at third. That was followed up by a ground ball hit by Matt Tuiasosopo to the shortstop Tommy Manzella who fumbled the ball around and was only able to force out Gimenez at second and that scored the tying run as Saunders came in making the score 6-6. It resulted in a blown save for Cook.
After the Aces had a 5-1 lead early in the game, Tacoma kept clawing and scratching their way to force the game into extra innings.
In the top half of the 10th inning the Rainiers were only able to get a single by Alex Liddi and he was left stranded by Ryan Cook. The Aces came to bat in the bottom half not recording a hit since the 5th. They loaded the bases without getting a hit, and with two out, Tommy Manzella came up only to hit a soft grounder to the shortstop Carlos Triunfel who went to second base to force out Hallberg to end the inning and the Aces' threat went with it.
The game still stuck at 6-6 as it entered the 11th inning. Jeff Bennett came in to relieve Ryan Cook and was the 6th pitcher of the game for Reno. Bennett had a 1-2-3 inning by striking out Saunders and Gimenez, while getting Tuiasosopo to ground out to third to end the inning quietly.
With the Aces coming to bat in the 11th, Frey was able to draw a lead-off walk and that was followed up by a Berroa strikeout. To make things worse, Frey was caught stealing second for the second out. Abreu walked to keep the inning alive for Gillespie who grounded out softly to the second baseman Sean Kazmar and kept the marathon game going into the 12th.
A 1-2-3 inning for the Aces defense in the top half of the 12th. As Reno came to bat, Andy Tracy started it with a lead-off double off of Tacoma reliever Chaz Roe. Then, Ryan Langerhans came to bat. He would be the last as he hit a walk-off double in deep center field that scored pinch-runner Tom Layne from second giving the Aces a 7-6 victory. The win is the fourth striaght for Reno and now lead Tacoma by eight and a half games in the division.