Two-Homer, Seven Run Rally in Ninth Saves Sacramento on Sunday

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Down to their final two outs and trailing by five runs, the Sacramento River Cats unleashed a seven-run bottom of the ninth that contained a pair of home runs, the second a two-run, walk-off blast from Cavan Biggio to send Sacramento home with an 11-9 win and series victory over the Las Vegas Aviators on Sunday.

Scoring first was the River Cats (27-30/71-61), plating two in the home half of the first thanks to RBI singles from both Trenton Brooks and Marco Luciano. However, the Aviators (64-67) were quickly able to equalize with their own pair of tallies in the top of the second, scoring the first on a solo homer from Carlos Perez that started the inning while a Logan Davidson single provided the other.

The third inning was when the game swung in favor of Las Vegas, pouring on six runs in the away half of the inning with the highlight being Perez’s second homer in as many innings, this time a three-run blast. Later in the frame Cooper Bowman chipped in a sacrifice fly, while Hoy Park and Davidson both singled in runners.

Though Sacramento found a run in the bottom of the third on a Marco Luciano single up the middle and in the sixth thanks to a Will Wilson single into left, the Rier Cats still found themselves trailing by four entering the ninth.

Las Vegas even added an insurance run in the top of the ninth, as Perez smashed his third homer of the game that pushed the lead out to 9-4. That made Perez just the second player since 2005 to hit three home runs in a game against the River Cats, joining Ricardo Nanita of the then Las Vegas 51’s during a 10-4 Las Vegas win in Sacramento on Aug. 18, 2012. However, he is only the second Aviator to have a three-homer game this season, joining Max Muncy who did so in Las Vegas against Albuquerque on Aug. 4.

Down but not out, Sacramento dropped a total of seven runs in the bottom of the ninth to storm all the way back for a victory, the second time this season in which they have scored seven runs in the ninth inning. The previous instance came just 10 days prior on Aug. 22 at Tacoma, as they poured on seven insurance runs to cap off a 13-5 victory over the Rainiers.

After an inning-opening strikeout, Sacramento put a pair in scoring position with a walk to Meckler and a double down the left-field line by Luis Matos. Trenton Brooks then traded places with Matos in the next at-bat, driving in two, while a Luciano single moved runners to the corners. Despite a pitching change, Hunter Bishop unloaded on an 0-1 pitch and crushed it to deep right field, tying the ballgame for Sacramento.

Continuing the offense with a walk but now down to their last strike, Cavan Biggio played the hero with his second walk-off RBI in the series as he matched Bishop with a towering blast down the right-field line that gave Sacramento its seventh walk-off win of the season.

Despite allowing the home run in the top of the ninth, Kolton Ingram (2-2) ended as the winning pitcher of record after he also struck out one in his only inning of work. However, much of the credit belonged to the three pitchers prior that combined on 5.2 scoreless innings in Drew Strotman, Clay Helvey and Justin Garza, the latter of which was making his first start back from the temporary inactive list. Of the three, Helvey struck out three while facing the minimum six hitters.

The trio of Wilson, Brooks and Luciano all ended with three hits, though Wilson was the only one of the trio to not start in the contest. Biggio closed his game 2-for-6 with a pair of extra-base hits including the game-winning home run, while Bishop drove in the game-tying run with his three-run homer for his only hit of the day.

The win helped the River Cats close out the series with Las Vegas by winning four of six, and Sacramento will now turn its attention to the Salt Lake Bees when they meet for their series opener on Tuesday at 5:35 p.m. (PT).