Rainiers Secure Opening Series Sweep Behind Austin Shenton’s Walk-Off Homerun
TACOMA, WA (March 30th, 2025) - The Tacoma Rainiers (3-0) secured an opening series sweep of the Round Rock Express behind a three-run walk-off home run from Austin Shenton that propelled them to a 5-2 victory on Sunday afternoon at Cheney Stadium in front of a crowd of 4,361. Round
TACOMA, WA (March 30th, 2025) - The Tacoma Rainiers (3-0) secured an opening series sweep of the Round Rock Express behind a three-run walk-off home run from Austin Shenton that propelled them to a 5-2 victory on Sunday afternoon at Cheney Stadium in front of a crowd of 4,361.
Round Rock opened the scoring in the second inning. After a pair of walks, Trevor Hauver scored on an infield single by Sam Haggerty.
Express starter Adrian Houser held the Rainiers without a hit until there were two outs in the fifth, at which point Samad Taylor tied the game with a solo home run to left, his first of the season.
Rainiers’ starter Luis F. Castillo went 5.2 innings, allowing one run on two hits and two walks while striking out two. He left the game with the score still tied at 1-1, which would be broken in the bottom of the seventh after a wild pitch from Shintaro Fujinami allowed Sam Haggerty to score, giving Round Rock a 2-1 lead.
Tacoma would knot the score in the bottom of the eighth, when Leo Rivas lifted his second home run of the series to the opposite field. Hagen Danner held the score in the top of the ninth, getting out of a jam with runners on second and third and one out by striking out Kellen Strahm and inducing a ground out to second from Dustin Harris.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Rainiers would get runners on first and third after base hits from Harry Ford and Ben Williamson. Austin Shenton then clubbed a three-run home run to right field to walk-off the Express and give Tacoma the 5-2 victory.
Postgame Notes:
This is the first Rainiers’ walk-off home run since September 17th, 2024 when Jake Slaughter also hit a three-run homerun to beat Round Rock in 10 innings.
This is only the third time since 2005 the Rainiers have hit a walk-off home run in an opening series
The Rainiers' five home runs are tied for second most in Triple-A through the opening weekend
The Rainiers are the only Triple-A team to have played three games and not allow a home run
The Rainiers’ four earned runs allowed is the second fewest after opening weekend
This is the Rainiers’ first 3-0 start since 2006
The Rainiers are the only PCL team and one of only two teams in all of Triple-A that has started 3-0 in 2025