Three Sacramento Runs Early No Match for Sugar Land Slam

SUGAR LAND, Tex. – For a second straight game a grand slam pushed a team to victory, but this time it wasn’t the Sacramento River Cats as their early 3-0 lead could not hold up after a grand slam for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys resulted in a 7-3 decision on Tuesday.

Action started with one swing of the bat from Hunter Bishop when he led off the second, as his second homer in the past three games broke the ice and put the River Cats (8-14/52-45) on the scoreboard first. That was the first of four straight hits, the last two consecutive doubles as Ryan McKenna lined a two-bagger that put he and Blake Sabol in scoring position. Meanwhile, Grant McCray followed up with one of his own and earned a pair of RBI.

The Space Cowboys (13-8/62-34) initially stole a run back in the third on a Luke Berryhill RBI single, but it was the fifth where they did the most damage. Quincy Hamilton returned the favor with a leadoff homer, launching a 1-2 pitch out to right center. Three straight singles loaded the bases, all setting up Shay Whitcomb to hit the sixth Sugar Land grand slam of the season and put the Space Cowboys back on top.

For insurance they added a tally in the seventh, taking advantage of a wild pitch to force home a run and bring the game to its final ending score. Unbeknownst at the time, the River Cats had just one hit after the third inning and finished the game having 19 of their last 20 hitters retired.

Taking the loss was Tanner Andrews (3-5), who after an impressive fourth inning in which he struck out the first two hitters he faced, ran into trouble during the third and surrendered both homers and all five runs. He came after Landen Roupp, who had turned in a sharp 3.0 innings by allowing only the solo homer while punching out five.

All seven Sacramento hits came from different bats, with Bishop and McCray combining for the three RBI while Sabol and McKenna scored once along with Bishop. Along with McKenna and McCray, Jerar Encarnacion logged a two-bagger in the contest.

The River Cats will try to draw even in the series when the two teams line up for game two at Constellation Field tomorrow at 5:05 p.m. (PT).