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Round Rock Express

Express Comeback Falls Short, Lose to Rainiers 5-3

May 30, 2015 - Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Round Rock Express News Release


TACOMA, Washington - The Round Rock Express (30-17) came up two runs short after making the 2,129 mile trek from Dell Diamond to Cheney Stadium as the Tacoma Rainiers (20-29) escaped with the game one victory, 5-3. Round Rock went eight innings without a run, but posed a threat with a three-run ninth.

The contest began with strong starting pitching as both Express RHP Jerad Eickhoff and Rainiers RHP Sam Gaviglio held opposing batters hitless through the first two innings. Gaviglio picked up the first two outs of the third on back-to-back fly outs, but surrendered the first hit of the game to Express LF Carlos Arroyo as the Venezuelan smacked a double into left field. The Tacoma starter was able to freeze Arroyo on second as he got DH Ryan Strausborger to pop out to end the inning.

Eickhoff started his third inning with a quick fly out, but issued a walk to Tacoma SS Leury Bonilla that brought CF James Jones to the plate. Jones hit the first pitch he saw from Eickhoff, resulting in a double that moved Bonilla to third. Rainiers DH Ketel Marte used a sacrifice fly to left field to score Bonilla for the first run of the game. Eickhoff made 1B Jesus Montero fly out to center to close the third inning, keeping the Tacoma advantage at 1-0.

The fifth inning opened with a tough break for Eickhoff as the righty struck out Tacoma C John Hicks on a wild pitch, but C Tomas Telis could not recover the pitch in time as Hicks hustled down the line to claim first. Hicks then stole second with 3B Carlos Rivero at the plate, placing himself in scoring position. A Rivero groundout put Hicks on third with Bonilla coming to bat. Bonilla hit a soft single to get on base, but the Round Rock defense kept Hicks stuck on third. Eickhoff continued to struggle as he gave up his third and fourth walks of the game to walk-in the second Tacoma run of the night. Montero extended the Rainier lead to 3-0 with another Tacoma sacrifice fly. Eickhoff stopped the surge with a fly out to end the fifth.

Gaviglio kept the Express bats frustrated as the Oregon native tossed his third 1-2-3 inning of the night in the top half of the sixth. Eickhoff's sixth went completely opposite of Gaviglio's as he gave up a single, double and triple in consecutive order that supplied Tacoma with two more runs, making the score 5-0. He used a strikeout and a ground out to get out the jam, but the task became a bit more daunting for the Express offense. The sixth proved to be Eickhoff's (4-3, 5.48) final inning as the Round Rock righty went 6.0 innings with six hits, five runs (five earned) and four walks while striking out six Rainiers.

RHP Roman Mendez was the first and only E-Train reliever to come out of the bullpen and started the bottom half of the seventh with a fly out. A quick line out put two outs in Mendez's pocket, but RF Leon Landry knocked a single to right for the first hit against Mendez. Mendez took back control with a strikeout to get the Express out of the seventh.

2B Rougned Odor used a lead-off double in the ninth to threaten Gaviglio's shutout bid and record his second hit of the night. RF Jake Smolinski gave Gaviglio the first out of the inning with a sharp line out, but Tacoma used a mound visit to evaluate its starter and ultimately pulled Gaviglio (4-4, 4.94) after he went 8.1 innings with five hits, no runs and three walks while collecting five strikeouts. RHP Danny Farquhar entered for Gaviglio, but did not carry the same bravado as the starter. Telis lofted a RBI double to left to bring in Odor and end the Tacoma shutout bid. Farquhar settled with a strikeout of SS Ed Lucas, but was not out of the briar patch yet. CF Jared Hoying then jettisoned a 1-0 pitch from Farquhar to right field for his seventh homer of the year and cut the Tacoma lead to 5-3 with two outs, heightening the suspense in the final inning. 1B Brett Nicholas fell behind 0-1 in the count and ended the contest with a ground out, giving the Rainiers the game one victory.

The Express and Rainiers continue the series tomorrow night with game two at 7:05 p.m. CDT. RHP Stolmy Pimentel (0-0, 0.00) takes the hill for the E-Train while the Rainiers send out RHP Forrest Snow (1-4, 3.00).

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Pacific Coast League Stories from May 30, 2015


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