RENO, Nev. – A close series in the beginning finished with a couple of wide margins of victory, but in the end the Reno Aces closed the first series of the 2026 second half with a split against the Oklahoma City Comets, Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
A season-high five innings from Tommy Henry was enough to earn him his first win of 2026, while a trio of runs in the first two frames put Reno on path to a 5-4 win in the series opener against the Comets on June 23.
Though Henry walked three, he also punched out six to match his season high and further push his Aces career record to 314. Even further, the win was the 18th of his Reno career, moving him into sole possession of fifth place in franchise history.
It was a bit of an odd win for the Aces, who claimed victory despite not logging a hit with runners in scoring position. Reno finished the night 0-for-14 in such instances, their eighth occurrence without a knock when runners are in scoring position. The 14 at-bats without a hit are their most in such situations this season.
Helping overcome that category for the Aces were the 12 walks they earned, matching their season high from April 7 at Salt Lake. Reno had just five hits in the contest, with only two going for extra-base hits thanks to the homers from A.J. Vukovich and Jacob Amaya.
One extra frame was needed to decide a winner in game two of the series between the Aces and Comets, this time with Reno truly “walking” it off to end on the right side of a 4-3 decision in 10 innings on June 24.
The first third of the contest lasted 80 minutes as there were a combined four walks and 11 hits over those first three frames. A 3-3 tie held from the fourth through the ninth due in large part to the starting effort of Yu-Min Lin, who worked his second consecutive quality start and third of the season.
The Aces’ bullpen was just as crucial, working the final four frames without a hit allowed while facing the minimum 12 batters in that span. Philip Abner had one of the most impressive performances out of the bullpen this season, as he struck out five of the six batters he faced to earn his second win of the campaign. This was the second consecutive day and fourth time this season that an Aces reliever has worked two or more perfect innings with three or more strikeouts.
Playing the hero for the Aces in the ninth was Amaya, and he did it without recording a hit. Amaya never had to lift the bat off his shoulder, as he watched four straight pitches en route to the game-winning RBI. That gave the Aces just their third extra-innings win of the season, as they are now 3-6 in such contests.
Reno rallied within one run when fighting back from a six-run third frame by Oklahoma City, one that was highlighted by a grand slam, but the Aces’ comeback fell just shy in a 9-8 final on June 25.
Similar to the contest from the day prior, the Aces pulled in front during their first set of swings with one swat of the bat from Ryan Waldschmidt. Leading off the frame with a single was Kristian Robinson, allowing Waldschmidt to do early damage with his two-run blast that left the yard to left center.
Unfortunately for the Aces, the big hit was the grand slam launched by Austin Gauthier to right field that cleared the bases and built a comfortable 6-2 lead.
Only two Aces had multi-hit nights in Waldschmidt and Christian Cerda, the former 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI thanks to his homer. Meanwhile, Cerda doubled once while also driving in two with his two knocks.
A four-run fifth had the Aces in the driver seat as the game entered the latter stages on June 26, but the Comets flipped the script with four runs of their own in the eighth to steal an 8-6 win in game four of the series.
Reno plated their first runner just two batters into that frame as Kristian Robinson’s single set the stage for Wednesday night’s hero, Amaya, to deliver yet again with an RBI double down the line in left field.
Manuel Pena closed his night with a trio of knocks, driving in two RBI along the way. Robinson also finished with multiple hits, going 2-for-5 while scoring once. Both Amaya and Jose Fernandez doubled for their only knock, the former driving in one along with it.
Multi-run explosions in two of the first three innings for the Aces set them on the path to a 9-4 win over Oklahoma City in game five of their series on June 27.
Reno’s opening set of at-bats saw the Aces score four times, all of which came with two outs. A walk to Amaya set up Tyler Locklear for a two-RBI double, but Reno kept the bases loaded after a single from A.J. Vukovich and a walk to Danny Serretti. Driving home two with a single was Pena, while a ground-rule double from Cerda pushed across the final tally.
Combining on the final 5.2 innings, the Reno bullpen allowed just two runs while the victory went to Isaiah Campbell after allowing one run on two hits in 1.1 innings, his fourth victory of the campaign.
Six of the nine Aces hitters in the starting lineup recorded hits in the contest, none more crucial than the two doubles in four at-bats by Cerda who also finished with three RBI and a run scored. Also notching a pair of doubles was Locklear, who had an identical stat line to Cerda (apart from one more at-bat) with two doubles, three runs driven in, and one run scored.
Of the three Aces that did not record a hit, one was Robinson and he still found his way aboard plenty. Robinson worked four free passes in the contest, a mark that is tied for the most in a game this season by an Ace along with Luken Baker. Additionally, it was just the 11th time in franchise history that an Ace has walked four or more times.
That win helped snap a streak of six consecutive series losses for Reno, which is their most in franchise history for either the six-game format (since 2021) or in any prior format. The previous consecutive series losing streak was four series during the 2012 campaign from April 9-24.
Three straight run-scoring innings seemingly had Reno on the way to a series victory, but six runs in the final four frames by Oklahoma City led to a 10-4 Aces defeat on June 28 for a series split.
Reno’s action got started with two runs in one of the most exciting of fashions as the Aces crushed back-to-back homers for the 82nd time in team history, the second this season. With one out, Aramis Garcia left the yard to left center while Angel Ortiz immediately followed with one to the right-center gap.
While Reno’s victory on Saturday assured them a series split, today’s loss prevented the Aces from winning the series, something they have not done since they took four of six games from Sugar Land in Reno from April 28-May 3.
Of Reno’s six hits, two came from the bat of Garcia who closed his game 2-for-3 including his homer. Outside of Ortiz’s homer, which was his only hit in three trips, Tawa had the only other extra-base hit with a double in his three at-bats.
Six different Aces finished the week batting above the .300 line, five of which had 10 or more at-bats. Tops among them was Cerda, who ended his week at a .500 clip with three doubles, five RBI, two walks and a 1.383 OPS. Waldschmidt also had an impressive week batting .400, scoring four runs, totaling three extra-base hits (two doubles, one homer) and four RBI, and recording a 1.283 OPS.
The Acs now hit the road for the first road trip of the second half with six games in the Pacific Northwest against the Tacoma Rainers beginning on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. PT.