RedHawks Use Hot Start to Cruise Past Aces

Oklahoma City scored runs in each of the first four innings and held on for the rest of the night.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:54 am

By: News On 6

RedHawks Use Hot Start to Cruise Past Aces

Originally Published: Aug 17, 2010 10:31 PM CDT

Corey DeMoss
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City RedHawks took advantage of early erratic pitching and never looked back Tuesday in a 10-4 victory over the Reno Aces.

Three of the RedHawks’ (64-58) first four batters drew walks, and Hernan Iribarren drove two of them in with a double. Max Ramirez followed with a three-run home run to give the RedHawks five runs in the opening frame on just two hits.

Esteban German added a solo home run in the second, and more bad pitching by the Aces (57-66) handed OKC a run in the third. Iribarren doubled, and Reno (57-66) pitcher Cesar Valdez threw two wild pitches to bring him home and give OKC a 7-0 lead.

Reno got on the board with a leadoff home run in the top of the fourth by Jeff Bailey, but OKC responded with two runs of its own on a Willie Taveras double to extend the lead to 9-1. At that point, the RedHawks had scored nine runs on just six hits.

Both teams stayed quiet until the eighth inning, when Reno put three runs on the board thanks to a Jeff Bailey two-run double and Ed Rogers RBI single. But by then it was too little, too late. The RedHawks scored a run in the bottom of the inning without recording a hit, as reliever Leyton Septimo walked four of the six batters he faced.

Valdez (4-9) was credited with the loss after giving up nine runs on seven hits and four walks in four innings of work. The RedHawks did not record a hit off any of Reno’s following four pitchers.

Zachary Phillips started for OKC, but was pulled after just two innings. Michael Kirkman (13-3) entered in relief and gave up one run in four innings to earn the win.

The victory ended a two-game losing streak for Oklahoma City and marked the first contest in a four-game series against the Aces. The teams will face off again at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday.