Nicholson Paces Salt Lake to First Road Series Win
PCL Salt Lake Bees

Nicholson Paces Salt Lake to First Road Series Win

Published on June 14, 2026 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Salt Lake Bees News Release


RENO, NV. - Recent call-up Ryan Nicholson came through twice for the Bees, helping the visitors secure their first road series win of the season, in a wild 11-10 Sunday matinee. The University of Kentucky product recorded a go-ahead RBI double in the ninth inning as part of his first three-hit ledger at Triple-A.

Salt Lake 11, Reno 10

WP: Joey Lucchesi (3-1)

LP: Yilber Diaz (3-3)

SV: Kaleb Ort (3)

Key Performers

Ryan Nicholson: 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI, K

Christian Moore: 3-4, 2 R, 2B, RBI, BB

Josh Lowe: 2-5, R, 3 RBI, K

Ben Gobbel: 1-4, 2 R, HR, RBI, BB, K

Game Summary

Reno struck first under Sunday's sun-splashed sky as Tim Tawa launched his fifth homer in 12 games with the Aces this season. His solo shot gave the hosts a 1-0 advantage.

Ben Gobbel took the second pitch of the second inning and landed it beyond left center field, tying the game with his first career Triple-A homer. The Aces re-gained the lead in the bottom half on a trio of singles, moving ahead 2-1. Caden Dana avoided more damage, striking out the final two batters to end the frame.

Following a pair of leadoff walks, Salt Lake played small ball to even the score. Yolmer Sánchez laid down a sacrifice bunt, which was followed by Josh Lowe's groundball for a 2-2 game.

In the fourth, Reno used a little bit of everything to post a five-run frame. Three stolen bases, three walks, an error on a wild pitch and a single saw the hosts go up 6-2. Jacob Amaya punctuated the scoring in the inning on his seventh homer with the Aces this year, making it 7-2.

Salt Lake responded with a big inning themselves. Loading the bases with one out, the visitors went to work. Lowe singled home two through the right side to cut the deficit to 7-4, before Bryce Teodosio beat out an infield single to bring home another run. A throwing error on a stolen base attempt trimmed the lead to 7-6, while a walk forced a pitching change. Nelson Rada greeted the new Reno arm with a single into left, tying the score at 7-7. In just his third Triple-A game, Ryan Nicholson delivered his biggest hit as a Bee with a go-ahead RBI single that gave Salt Lake their first lead of the day at 8-7.

Reno leveled the score in the immediate half inning with some small ball. A walk and single started the threat, and both runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt. Anderdson Rojas came through with a single that scored one, continuing his red-hot week against the Bees. Huascar Ynoa worked around the runner on third to keep the contest knotted up at eight.

After the seventh inning stretch, Kristian Robinson turned on a 2-1 fastball from Ynoa, surging the Aces back in front at 9-8. Once Ynoa exited, Joey Lucchesi entered. The two arms combined to strike out the side in the frame, swaying momentum back to the bats.

Nicholson singled to start the eighth, standing as the tying run. He moved to second with two outs with Christian Moore up at the plate. The Tennessee alum hit a deep fly ball off the center field wall, evening the game at 9-9 on his double. The two-out rally continued as Sánchez blooped a single into left that scored Moore, giving the Bees the 10-9 advantage.

The back-and-forth affair kept rolling, as Reno tied things up with their own two-out surge in the bottom half. Lucchesi yielded an RBI triple that knotted the score at 10 all, going to the ninth.

A baserunning miscue on a normal depth fly ball erased a leadoff single for Salt Lake. However, like they did in the eighth, the two out rally was on. Rada notched a base hit, bringing up Nicholson. Just as he did in the fifth, the infielder delivered another huge swing, finding the right center gap to bring home Rada. Nicholson was caught in a rundown to end the frame, but the run counted and handed Kaleb Ort a one-run advantage.

The Michigander worked around a single in the ninth to secure the save and complete the Bees' first road series victory of 2026.

Game Notes

Salt Lake gathered their first road series win in 2026 and first since taking a six-game set in Round Rock on August 26-31, 2025. It is also back-to-back series victories for Salt Lake and wins in four of their last five six-game sets. By winning Sunday's game, it also marked the fourth straight series finale the Bees have been victorious in.

The Bees are now 10-5 in one-run games, improving to 2-2 on the road. They also continued the trend of winning games when out-hitting the opposition, sitting at 24-3 overall and 9-2 away from home. Both teams collected double-digit hit totals and the Bees are 8-11 in games where that happens.

Salt Lake either tied the game or took the lead in the eighth inning or later in five of the six contests against Reno this week, highlighted by a game-tying home run in the eighth inning on Tuesday, go-ahead home runs in the eighth on Wednesday and Friday, a three-run ninth inning on Saturday, and three runs between the eighth and ninth today. The Bees also scored two runs in both the eighth and ninth innings on Thursday, though they were unable to erase the deficit.

Thanks to their series win this week, Salt Lake evened the season series with Reno, which stands at 6-6. Both clubs have a series win (Reno won 4-2 in April 7-12) at Greater Nevada Field, with Salt Lake doing so this week for the first time since July 26-31, 2022 when they also took four of the six games. The two squads will meet nine times in the second half, in a three-game set post-All Star Break and a six game series in August, both of which will be held in South Jordan.

All nine Bees reached at least once today, while eight of the nine starters (Nicholson) also scored one run. Additionally, seven Salt Lake hitters had at least one RBI. Five Bees recorded multi-hit efforts, led by Ryan Nicholson's and Christian Moore's three hits each. Josh Lowe, Bryce Teodosio and Nelson Rada all had two-hit afternoons.

Josh Lowe wasted no time in extending his on-base streak today, using a two-out single in the first. The outfielder has tied his longest on-base stretch of his career, matching a 19-gamer as a Durham Bull between June 15-July 9, 2021. Lowe has reached in every game he has played as a Bee since he was optioned on May 24. He has hits in 14 of those 19 games during the streak. Lowe later collected a trio of RBI (one on a groundout, two on a single) for his third three-RBI game of the week, fifth in the month of June and sixth with the Bees this season. The outfielder moved his hit streak to four games and notched a multi-hit performance, his seventh as a Salt Lake Bee in 2026.

Ben Gobbel began the second inning by depositing a 1-1 heater 419 feet away from home plate to record his first career Triple-A home run. It is his fourth total longball of the season and first since May 30 at the Complex League. In just eight games at the level, Gobbel has an OPS of .869. The infielder scored twice today, his second Triple-A game with multiple runs (September 14, 2025 vs. Tacoma).

A leadoff single added to Christian Moore's on-base streak, now at 14 games. He was thrown out trying to stretch the knock into a double, but counts as his 21st hit of the month and pushes the hit streak to seven games. Two more hits on Sunday secured a three-hit afternoon for Moore, the fourth over his last five games. Moore finished the series batting .560 (14-for-25) with two home runs, a double, nine RBI, six runs scored and a 1.465 OPS.

Arol Vera reached base safely today for the second straight game, as he drew his second Triple-A walk. He later scored on that trip and has five runs in his first 12 Triple-A games. The young infielder has contributed this week, despite sitting in a 0-for-18 slump.

A fifth-inning walk gave Zach Humphreys his fifth straight game with at least one free pass. The catcher has seven over the five games, which is tied for the third longest active stretch in the PCL. Humphreys also holds a six-game on-base streak, which is one shy of his season long of seven (May 2-15).

In his third career Triple-A game, Ryan Nicholson delivered twice. He tallied, at the time, a go-ahead RBI single in the fifth to pick up his first run driven in at the level. Then, in the ninth, the Kentucky alum doubled home Nelson Rada in his second go-ahead knock of the day. Nicholson has hits in both games he has started at Triple-A following his debut in a defensive replacement/pinch-hit showing on Friday. Nicholson finished with three hits, his first career multi-hit showing at Triple-A and 10th total of the season.

Rob Kaminsky faced three batters and recorded the final out of the fourth inning today. It marked consecutive scoreless outings, tallying 1.2 innings across those two appearances. This week at Reno, the southpaw pitched three times and allowed one run over 2.1 innings.

Yolmer Sánchez is starting to heat up in June, picking up an RBI in consecutive games. He tallied a go-ahead run-scoring single in the eighth, marking his third straight contest with a hit. Sánchez has hit safely in seven straight Sunday games, dating back to April 26 at Las Vegas.

A two-hit day for Nelson Rada continued his solid month of June, batting 14-for-40 (.350). The outfielder has four multi-hit efforts in the month.

Joey Lucchesi allowed his first run in the month of June, but still picked up the win, his second in June. He tossed 1.2 innings today, punching out four Aces. Across seven innings of work (four app.), the lefty is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA and has 12 strikeouts.

Kaleb Ort's scoreless ninth earned him his third save of the campaign and first since May 31 at Round Rock. His outing today was his first shutout appearance since June 7 vs. Albuquerque, in which he collected the win in that game.

Up Next

Following Monday's off day, Salt Lake will start the final series of the first half on Tuesday at home against the Tacoma Rainiers (Triple-A, Seattle Mariners). First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. MDT at The Ballpark at America First Square.

Check out the Salt Lake Bees Statistics

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Pacific Coast League Stories from June 14, 2026


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