Game 1
The El Paso Chihuahuas opened the series strong with a close victory 4-3 against the Reno Aces. Reno struck first with a home run in the top of the first inning from batter Jordan Lawlar.
El Paso answered back in the bottom of the fourth when batter Tim Locastro singled on a ground ball, which led to base runner Nate Mondou scoring the first run for the Chihuahuas.
With the game tied 1-1, Reno’s batter Trey Mancini got a home run in the top of the sixth to make the score 2-1. The Chihuahuas failed to answer back, as the Aces’ batter A.J Vukovich added another home run in the top of the ninth, extending the lead 3-1.
El Paso’s final chance to win the game was up to batter Rodolfo Duran. With two baserunners on first and second, Duran hit a 431-foot home run to walk off the game, securing a 4-3 win.
Game 2
The Aces were victorious against the Chihuahuas with a final score of 8-4. Reno followed a similar pattern
from Game 1, with a run scored from base runner Jake McCarthy after batter Jorge Barrosa hit a line drive to earn the runs batted in (RBI) and a single.
The Aces scored for the next two innings with no response from El Paso. Reno had two home runs, and five total runs scored in the second and third innings.
The Chihuahuas showed signs of offense when base runner Clay Dungan scored El Paso’s first run of the match. Reno struggled to answer back as the Chihuahuas earned two runs in the fifth from a two-run homer by Dungan and a line drive from Mike Brosseau which allowed Locastro to score another run making the score 6-4 with Reno in the lead after six innings.
Both teams went scoreless until the top of the ninth, where Aces batter Tristin English hit a double to right field earning two RBIs from base runners Trey Mancini and Conner Kaiser. El Paso was not able get any points as designated hitter Jason Heyward got a fly out to right field giving Reno the win 8-4.
Game 3
With the series tied 1-1, the Chihuahuas took Game 3 in the bottom of the 10th inning with a walk off single from batter Forrest Wall which allowed base runner Duran to score the winning run.
Although the Aces were able to score 10 runs in the first three innings alone while El Paso only had three, the Chihuahuas were able to score another two runs in the bottom of the fourth from Dungan hitting a double which allowed Wall to score. Batter Luis Campusano followed with a single line-drive that got Dungan to score in the fourth run making it 10-5 with Reno still comfortably in the lead.
The Aces earned their 11th and final run of the game in the top of the seventh from base runner Nicky Lopez, scoring off of a single by batter Connor Kaiser. In the bottom of the seventh, with the bases loaded, El Paso batter Mason McCoy hit a 394-foot home run to left field, giving the Chihuahuas a chance to take the lead while they’re only down by two runs, 11-9. With a double from batter Luis Campusano, base runner Yonathan Perlaza scored the 10th for El Paso, making it 11-10.
A clutch home run to left field by batter Mike Brosseau in the bottom of the eighth inning tied up the game. With no one scoring in the ninth inning, both teams were looking to close out the game with a win. While Reno was not able to put up anymore points in the top of the 10th inning, El Paso still had some momentum going with base runners on second and third in the bottom of the 10th. Chihuahuas batter Wall hit a single line drive from a 95.6 mph fastball to right field, allowing Duran to score the game winning run. El Paso won the match 12-11.
Game 4
The Reno Aces came back with vengeance in Game 4. The Aces had 21 hits with 17 of them being scored runs. The Chihuahuas only had six hits, with four runs being scored. While El Paso had a similar performance to Reno in the pitching statistics, the Chihuahuas used six pitchers while the Aces only used three. Reno had all but one of their batters to get at least one hit during the game while El Paso only had four batters get one hit or more. Reno won 17-4 tying up the series 2-2.
Game 5
The Chihuahuas lost Game 5, 4-3. El Paso batter Mason McCoy scored a two-run homer in the bottom of the third inning with Dungan as the base runner scoring with him. The Aces would answer back in the top of the fourth inning with a 395-foot home run from Reno batter Jorge Barrosa making the score 2-1 with El Paso in the lead.
The Aces would score again in the top of the sixth with three runs scored from Rene Pinto’s three-run homer to make the lead two. El Paso closed the gap with McCoy singling a line drive to left field which allowed base runner Locastro to score the Chihuahuas third run to make it 4-3. This became the final score of the game as neither team scored again. Reno took the lead in the series 3-2.
Game 6
The Aces took a decisive victory over the Chihuahuas as they scored 12-4 and clinched the series. Scoring an efficient 12 runs out of their 13 hits was helped by Aces players Blaze Alexander and Pinto, both earning three RBIs respectively. El Paso did get 11 hits and had almost all their batters earn hits but two. None of the pitchers from either team allowed a homerun, yet the Aces were able to finish the job from the start.
Reno scored three runs at the top of the first inning with none other than Alexander and Pinto at the plate. The Chihuahuas answered back with two runs in the bottom of the first from batter Luis Campusano getting a single which led base runners Wall and McCoy to home plate.
El Paso only scored two more times in the third and seventh innings with one run each while Reno scored two in the fourth inning and three in fifth inning which was more than enough to close out the game leading to the final score of 12-4 and the win of the overall series against the Chihuahuas 4-2.
El Paso is back home to play the Sugar Land Space Cowboys from June 24-29 in another six-game series.
Kristian Hernandez is the sports editor for The Prospector and may be reached at [email protected] and social media tags @northeastvideography.
