OKC scores 5-3 victory over River Cats

May 18, 2024 – Pacific Coast League (PCL)
News item from the Oklahoma City Baseball Club

The Oklahoma City Baseball Club began to come out of an offensive funk, with the bullpen covering all nine innings in a 5-3 win over the Sacramento River Cats Saturday night at Sutter Health Park. Oklahoma City (24-20) grabbed an early lead when Andre Lipcius hit a solo home run in the first inning. Hunter Feduccia recorded an RBI single in the fourth inning, before a key two-run single by Kody Hoese with two outs in the sixth inning extended the lead to 4-0. Sacramento’s Casey Schmitt homered starting in the seventh inning, and the River Cats (26-18) scored twice on wild pitches in the eighth inning to cut OKC’s lead to one run. OKC then provided some breathing room in the ninth inning when Drew Avans scored on a close play at home on a fielder’s choice.

Note: -Oklahoma City snapped a four-game losing streak on the season with Saturday’s win. The team also won for only the second time in the last eight games.

-After scoring three points over the first four games of the series combined, OKC scored five points on Saturday evening. These are the second most points OKC has scored in the past eight games.

-Andre Lipcius homered in a second straight game and moved into a tie for the lead with his 12th homerun of the season. Lipcius finished with three hits in the game, going 3-for-5 with two extra-base hits…Lipcius has hit safely in eight of his last nine games, going 14-for-35 (.400) with three home hits. runs, five doubles and nine RBI.

-Saturday was a bullpen game for OKC, with seven relievers completing nine innings. Drew Pomeranz opened the game by retiring six of the seven batters he faced, including five via strikeout. Gus Varland was the only other pitcher to work multiple innings, retiring all six batters in the fourth and fifth inning. Michael Petersen was credited with the win and Michael Flynn struckout two batters during a scoreless ninth inning, earning his first save with OKC.

-During one stretch between the first and sixth inning, the OKC pitching staff retired 16 consecutive batters and retired 18 of the first 19 batters in Sacramento of the night…The pitching staff finished with 12 strikeouts against one walk.

-Austin Gauthier reached base three times and hit a double and two walks.

Next: Oklahoma City ends its season series against Sacramento at Sutter Health Park, beginning at 3:05 PM CT Sunday. Live radio coverage of every OKC Baseball Club game begins 15 minutes before the first pitch on AM 1340 “The Game”, 1340thegame.com and via the free iHeartRadio or MiLB First Pitch apps.

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