River Cats late-rally falls short, drop to Las Vegas 10-4

Photo by David Alvarez Photography

Originally published on SacramentoPress.com on Aug. 19, 2012


The Sacramento River Cats came up short on Saturday night as they lost their second game in a row, falling to the Las Vegas 51s 10-4 at Raley Field.

River Cats fans showed up heavily for “Star Wars Night,” with fans dressing up as various Star Wars characters. 14,818 fans showed up in total, making it the third most-attended River Cats game in franchise history.

The loss is Sacramento’s fourth in their last five contests.

Las Vegas got to River Cats starting pitcher Bruce Billings early, racking up six of their 10 runs during Billings’ 4.0 innings of work. Billings finished the night with four innings pitched, allowing six earned runs on seven hits and two walks, while striking out two.

The 51s got on the scoreboard first in the first inning when left fielder Ricardo Nanita hit a two-out, two-run homerun to give Las Vegas the early 2-0 lead.

Sacramento threatened in the bottom of the first inning, working into a bases-loaded situation with two outs. Catcher Anthony Recker was unable to come through with the needed hit as he grounded out to second.

Las Vegas wasn’t done scoring there, nor would they relinquish the lead to the River Cats. Las Vegas got right back to scoring in the second inning when Tuffy Gosewisch hit a double to left field to add two more runs for Las Vegas.

Nanita continued the scoring for the 51s with another homerun in the third inning, his second of the night, which gave his team a 5-0 lead. Nanita added a double in the fifth inning before homering yet again in the sixth inning. He finished 4 for 5 with three home runs and a double, along with four runs and four RBIs.

Sacramento used the long ball in the bottom of the sixth inning in an attempt to overcome the 10-0 deficit.

Left fielder Shane Peterson started the scoring by blasting a three-run homerun to center field to give the River Cats their first three runs of the contest. Shortstop Brandon Hicks continued the scoring with a homerun of his own with one out, cutting the lead to 10-4, but Sacramento’s rally would fall short as those would be the only four runs of the game for the squad.

Las Vegas relievers Clint Everts and Jim Hoey came in and shut down the River Cats for the final three innings, only allowing one hit and striking out seven.

Sacramento concludes their series with the Las Vegas 51s on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. at Raley Field. 

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