Aces send largest crowd of the season home with a victory

RENO - The largest crowd in Aces history went home happy as Reno scored five runs in the fifth inning en route to a 7-3 win over the Albuquerque Isotopes Friday night at Aces Ballpark.

The Aces improved to 66-60 while the Isotopes fell to 71-56. The Aces now head out of town for their final road trip of the season, playing four games in Colorado Springs and five in Las Vegas.The partisan crowd of 9,623 cheered as Ed Rogers belted a bases-loaded double in the fifth, scoring Brandon Allen, Cole Gillespe and Luke Carlin to tie the game at 3.

"I was concentrating, bases loaded and down two runs," said Rogers. "He gave me a good pitch to hit, and I was concentrating so I was able to hit a double. It was good."

Rogers drove in four runs in the game.

Billy Buckner (9-3) pitched seven strong innings to earn the win. He walkd just one batter. Jose Marte entered the game with the score 6-3 in the eighth inning and collected his second save of the season.

The win snapped a four-game losing streak and prevented Albuquerque from sweeping the first-ever series between the two clubs.

The Isotopes opened the game with a bang when lead-off hitter Chin Lung-Hu whacked Buckner's first pitch for a home run. The ball cleared the 20-foot fence in left field, ricocheted off the support post left of the scoreboard and back onto the field.

The visitors upped their lead to 3-0 in the fourth when Mitch Jones and Dee Brown hit back-to-back singles. Jones scored on a grounder to first that Brandon Allen booted for an error, and Brown came in on a double-play grounder to short by J.D. Closser.

Up to that point, Isotope starter J.D. Durbin (0-5) had held the Aces hitless, struck out three and allowed only one base runner on a walk to Carlin in the second inning. Durbin (0-5) entered the game with a 6.61 ERA.

"Initially, we weren't patient at all, swinging at the first pitches," Aces manager Brett Butler said. "When we came up in the fourth I told them 'this guy is 0-4 with a 6.61 ERA so if you have patience you'll get your pitch to hit. We went out there and did it and the rest took care of itself."

The Aces did just that. Ruben Gotay started things off with a single to left, then Durbin walked Allen and Gillespie to load the bases. Carlin followed with a bloop single to left to score Gotay with Reno's first run.

Then Rogers came up and slammed one all the way to the left-center field wall to score the three runs. Agustin Murillo followed with a blooper to right, scoring Rogers for a 4-3 lead and the Aces were ahead for good.

The Aces added single runs in the sixth and eighth innings.

In the sixth, Gillespie tripled and scored on a Rogers groundout to third. Gillespie broke on the pitch on what was supposed to be a squeeze play, and thus was close enough to home to score.

In the eighth, Gillespie singles, stole second, then moved to third on an infield hit by Carlin. Reno then executed a double steal as Carlin got himself hung up between first and second, Gillespie broke for home and beat Jones' throw to score.

The Aces improved to 66-60 while the Isotopes fell to 71-56. The Aces now head out of town for their final road trip of the season, playing four games in Colorado Springs and five in Las Vegas.