Aces survive weather, ninth inning in win

RENO " The Reno Aces survived a threat of lightning and a scary ninth inning to hold on

for a 7-6 win over the New Orleans Zeyphers Friday night at Aces Ballpark.

The game was rolling along until the end of the fifth inning when an

electrical storm came periously close to the stadium, resulting in a 1-hour and 24- minute delay. Little rain fell on the field, but the threat

of lightning strikes and heavy rain was enough to force the players off

the field.

Before that, it was the Aces who had provided most of the electricity as Reno jumped on New Orleans starter Jarrett Santos for three first-inning runs.

A walk to leadoff hitter Brandon Watson, a single

by Rusty Ryal and a fielder's choice comebacker by Alex Romero that

forced Ryal at second put runners at the corners with one out. Josh

Whitesell followed with a grounder to second to score Watson. On the play, Zeypher second baseman Andy Gonzalez overthrew second base, sending Romero to third and Whitesell to second.

It would prove to be a pivotal error as Luke Carlin followed with an

RBI groundout that scored Romero instead of being the third out. Trent

Oeltjen followed with a triple to the left-centerfield wall, scoring

Whitesell for a 3-0 lead.

New Orleans' Michael Ryan hit a solo home run onto the grassy knoll

beyond the right field fence in the second inning, cutting Reno's lead

to 3-1.

In the fourth, John Linsdey tripled to the centerfield wall and scored on Matt Craig's sacrifice fly to right to make it 3-2. Reno starter Seth Etherton allowed only those two runs and three hits in five innings of work.

Neither Etherton nor Santos returned to the hill after the delay.

Reno built its lead back to five with four runs in the seventh inning against Michael Wood.

Walks to Ryal and Whitesell and a RBI single by Carlin made it 4-2. Jay Buente relieved

Wood and promptly gave up a double to the left-center wall by Ruben Gotay that scored Whitesell and Carlin. Abraham Nunez then singled to score Gotay for a 7-2 Reno lead.

In the top of the ninth, Billy Spottiswood came in to pitch for the Aces.

New Orleans greeted him rudley with three straight singles by Manuel Mayson, Brett Carrol and Lindsey, whose hit brought home Mayorson. Bobby Korecky relieved Spottiswood and one out later served up Ryan's second home run of the evening, this one a three run blast that trimmed Reno's lead to one. Korecky then retired Dave Matranga on a grounder for the second out. The game ended when rightfielder Romero

made a running catch of of a fly ball off the bat of Brad Davis, leading over the fence in foul territory to snag it for the final out.

Etherton picked up the win to improve his record to 4-3 and Korecky earned the save. Santos took the loss for New Orleans.

Reno is now 16-25 on the season. The seriies continues today at 6:05 p.m.

Righthander Cezar Valez (1-4) goes for Reno against righthander Daniel

Barone (2-4) for New Orleans.