The Las Vegas Aviators hosted the Oklahoma City Comets in the final game of the six-game series on Sunday, June 1. The Aviators fell 12-3 and lost the series 4-2.
Kade Morris took the mound for the Aviators. The first Comet up to the plate, James Outman, homered to center field. A flyout and double play ended the inning. Las Vegas had no luck getting on base, popping out, striking out and flying out against pitcher Emmet Sheehan.
The Comets got on the board again to make it a 2-0 game. Chris Okey hit an RBI double to center field. While the Aviators made contact at the plate in the bottom of the second, no batters made it on base again.
The top of the third inning was a strong one for Morris. It was his first inning of the game where he did not allow a run, causing a lineout, strikeout and groundout. The Aviators’ offense piggy-backed off of Morris’ performance. Alejo Lopez recorded the first hit for the team with a fly ball single to short left field. Hit number two came from JJ Bleday with a bat-breaking grounder to third.
Las Vegas held Oklahoma City in the fourth to only one hit. The Comets brought in Kyle Funkhouser to pitch. Seth Brown hopped on the first and lined it to center field for a single. Colby Thomas homered to left field to tie the game 2-2. Carlos Cortes hit a short fly ball to center for a single. The Comets threw a double play to end the Aviators’ best inning of the game so far.
Morris walked his first batter of the game and allowed a single, but the Comets left the two runners stranded on base. Brennan Milone reached first on a fielding error, and Lopez singled to left field to get runners on the bags for the Aviators. Darell Hernaiz filled the bases with his single to third. Brown hit a flyout to right field, and the Comets threw out Milone at home to end the inning.
After Morris struck out Michael Chavis and allowed a double in the top of the sixth, the Aviators put David Leal on the mound. Morris ended his 5.1 inning stint, allowing seven hits and two runs, walking one batter and striking out four. Oklahoma City took the lead 3-2 with an RBI single by Austin Gauthier. A hard-hit grounder through first base by Okey and a drive up the middle by Justin Dean scored two more runs. With two outs, Leal walked a batter to fill the bases. The Comets left the runners on base when Ryan Ward struck out. Oklahoma City led 5-2. José Rodríguez replaced Funkhouser on the mound for the Comets. The Aviators scored on an RBI single to make the score 5-3.
Jake Walkinshaw took the mound for the Aviators to start the seventh inning. He walked the first batter and allowed two singles. The Comets scored one run to make it 6-3. With two outs, the Aviators replaced Walkinshaw with Carlos Duran. Okey hit an RBI double to extend the Comets’ lead to 7-3. Edgardo Henriquez stepped up to the mound for the Comets. He walked two, but the Aviators weren’t able to score the runners.
Duran struggled to find the zone and walked three batters into loading the bases. Nick Senzel reached on a throwing error, and two runners reached home to put the score at 9-3. Okey hit an RBI single up the middle for the Comets to reach 10 runs. Anthony Maldonado replaced Duran on the mound and struck out the last out of the inning. The Comets switched pitchers to Michael Kopech. The Aviators left the walked batter on base.
To finish the game, Shohei Tomioka took the mound for the Aviators. He allowed a single and two doubles on no-outs. Tomioka struck out a batter, caused an RBI single and a line out. The Comets took a 12-3 lead. Logan Boyer finished on the mound for the Comets and didn’t allow Las Vegas to score.
The Comets won the game 12-3 off of 18 hits compared to Las Vegas’ 10 hits.
