Season-High 19 Hits Lifts Cats to 11-8 Win Over Bees

SALT LAKE CITY – An offensive explosion for the Sacramento River Cats helped them shake off their three-game losing streak, pouring on 11 runs thanks to a season-high 19 hits as Sacramento topped the Salt Lake Bees by an 11-8 final on Saturday.

Action started hot for the River Cats (5-12/49-43) as they dropped a trio of runs in each of the first two frames, all of which began with a leadoff home run for Marco Luciano on the second pitch of the contest. It was the fourth leadoff homer by a River Cat this season, the first since Tyler Fitzgerald did so on June 15 at Reno in inside-the-park fashion.

That homer was the first of four straight hits by Sacramento, the last of which was an RBI single from Jerar Encarnacion that occurred just in front of a sacrifice fly from Rayn McKenna.

Two batters into the second and the River Cats added on two more, as Christian Koss hit his first River Cats home run with an 0-1 blast down the right-field line that scored Jakson Reetz. Up to the plate next was Luciano, who once more left the yard with a solo homer as he smashed a 2-2 offering to increase the lead to 6-0.

For Luciano, it made him the eighth River Cat this season to have a multi-homer game, and also made him the eighth River Cat to homer in consecutive games after hitting one in yesterday’s contest. Additionally, his second homer came in the second half of back-to-back homers with Koss, the third time this year that the River Cats have done so.

The Bees (8-9/40-51) cut the lead in half following the third frame, plating one in the second while adding on two in the third. All three runs came against Sacramento stater Carson Whisenhunt, who was able to limit damage to only those three runs while striking out seven in 4.0 innings of work. It marked the second straight game and seventh time this season that the southpaw has punched out seven or more.

Sacramento found insurance with a four-run fifth inning, which included a run on a sacrifice fly from Schmitt while David Villar produced a two-run double. That two-bagger, along with his single in the first inning, helped him set the longest hitting streak for Sacramento this season at 16 games, surpassing the 15 by Schmitt earlier this season.

Those four runs, plus one final tally in the seventh thanks to a second sacrifice fly from McKenna, proved to be just enough for the River Cats to finish off the victory. Action got close though, as the Bees scored a combined five runs from the sixth through the eighth innings, pulling within three. Two runs came against Tanner Andrews (3-4), but Andrews was able to stay collected and hold the Bees to just those two runs in 2.0 innings with four strikeouts. In his last two appearances totaling 2.2 innings, Andrews has recorded nine strikeouts.

On to close it out was Tyler Myrick (S, 1), allowing one hit but leaving him stranded en route to his first career Triple-A. In total it was his seventh save of 2024, as he recorded six saves with Double-A Richmond prior to joining the River Cats.

By the end of the night, Sacramento wound up with a season-high 19 hits, their first time totaling that many knocks since they had 21 on April 16, 2023 at Reno in a 17-9 victory. The River Cats also hit three home runs in a game for the 16th time this season, the first since they had three at home against Reno on July 2.

Of their 19 hits, 14 came from the top four spots in the lineup, four of which belonged to Luciano. That marked his first four-hit game of the season at any level, and his first four-hit game since he also had four as a member of Richmond on June 24, 2023. Producing three each were Schmitt and Encarnacion, the latter of which extended his hitting streak to eight games. Meanwhile, Villar closed his night 2-for-3, and has driven in runs in four straight games (six total).

These two teams will return to action tomorrow in the series finale, as the River Cats look to salvage a series split when the game gets underway at 12:05 p.m. (PDT).