Silver Sox lose a wild one to Chico

RENO - The play was reminiscent of the 1970 All-Star game when Pete Rose drilled Ray Fosse to score the winning run in a 5-4 National League victory.

With no outs and runners at second and third in the top of the 10th inning, Todd Gossage singled to left-center field. Victor Hall threw a perfect strike to the plate, and Jason Van Meetron crushed Reno catcher Maza Chikazawa at the plate, knocking the ball loose to complete the two-run single and give Chico an 11-9 lead.

Chikazawa lay motionless after the collision, and approximately 18 minutes passed before he was carried off on a stretcher by emergency medical personnel and taken to Saint Mary's Hospital.

When play resumed, league-leading Chico went on to score two more runs, and reliever Todd Gelatka breezed through the 10th inning to nail down the 13-9 win over the Silver Sox Tuesday night at Peccole Park.

The teams won't have to wait long to see each other again. They will start a three-game series tonight, and ex-Carson High star Dusty Bergman is expected to be on the hill for the Silver Sox.

The tiredness and lack of depth finally caught up to Reno, which has been going with nine pitchers in recent games.

Reno led 9-7 after four innings, but couldn't muster any more offense thanks to the brilliant relief effort by John Jefferson, who threw five innings, allowing one run, and Gelatka, who threw 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Chico scored once in the eighth and once in the ninth to tie the game at 9 off Kelly Johnson, who took the loss in his Reno debut.

In the eighth, Jesse Kovacs singled and came around to score on Gossage's fielder's choice as Reno was unable to turn a double play.

In the ninth, Jason Matteucci walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Kovacs' triple to the gap that eluded Senreiso, tying the score at 9.

Reno threatened in the ninth against reliever Jake McLintock.

Bub Madrid hit an infield single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mike Done. Ryan Brown was walked intentionally and Chikazawa walked on four pitches to load the bases.

Enter Gelatka, who struck out Kane Simmons on a high fastball for the second out. Hall followed with a deep drive in the right-centerfield that Daniel Nava tracked down on the warning track, sending the game to extra innings.

The loss wiped out a tremendous offensive output by Senreiso, who went 3-for-5 and drove in three runs.

Senreiso's first homer, a three-run shot, capped a six-run second inning and gave Reno a 6-2 lead.

Chico tied the game at 6 with three runs in the third and one in the fourth, but that lead didn't last long.

Chuck Sindlinger led off the fourth with a single. Senreiso followed with his second round-tripper to make it 8-6. Senreiso entered the game mired in a 1-for-16 slump.

Jefferson came on in relief of Jake McKinley. Jose Rodriguez and Madrid greeted him with back-to-back singles to put runners at first and second. Done followed with his second sacrifice bunt of the game to move runners to second and third, and Chikazwa made it a 9-6 game with a sacrifice line drive to right.