RENO, Nev. – The Reno Aces got to the scoring early and often on Thursday, often by launching an impressive home run, plating at least one run in each of the first six innings leading to a comfortable 12-6 win over the Round Rock Express at Greater Nevada Field.
Power continued to be a theme of the series as both teams homered in their opening set of swings, the first of the game coming from John Taylor as he gave the Express (8-7/39-51) a quick 1-0 lead. It quickly evaporated, as it took just two pitches for the Aces (9-6/41-49) and Anderdson Rojas, who returned to the lineup today.
Rojas lifted a solo shot to right field for his second of the season, and later in the inning was joined by Manuel Pena. That was the second blast in as many days for Pena, a two-run shot with two outs in the frame. It also represented the 29th homer of the season for Pena (between both Double-A and Triple-A), which is tied for second most at all levels of affiliated baseball.
Reno kept up the offense by plating two in the second, including an Aramis Garcia RBI double, and one more in the third on Tyler Locklear’s fifth home run of the campaign.
An RBI groundout from Rojas chipped in one more in the fourth before the Express could finally reach the scoreboard for a second time. A two-out double from Jared Kelenic pushed home one more in the fifth, but the Aces returned the favor with an RBI single from Jose Fernandez and a two-RBI triple from Angel Ortiz.
The end of the scoring streak for Reno came in the home half of the sixth when Rojas hit his second leadoff homer of the game, marking the second two-homer game of the season by a Reno Ace. Not to be outdone, Locklear lifted off again during his final at-bat in the home half of the eighth, as that duo joined Jacob Amaya (4/22 at El Paso) as the only three Aces this season with multi-homer games.
Casey Anderson opened the contest and allowed one run in his only frame while punching out two before giving way to southpaw Kohl Drake (3-5). Drake went on to work the next 3.2 innings while yielding two runs on two hits with three walks and two strikeouts in collecting his third win of the season.
Reno totaled 19 hits on the night, a new season high and their most in a game since they also had 19 during a 15-13 loss in 11 innings at home against Sacramento on July 6, 2025. Of tonight’s 19 hits, five were home runs which is also a new season best, topping the four they hit last night. It had been since June 14, 2025 when Reno last hit five homers, doing so against the Sugar Land Space Cowboys at home.
Eight of nine Aces in the starting lineup had hits, with seven of those eight logging multi-hit games. Rojas was among the most impressive, tallying four hits including his two homers while also scoring twice and driving in three. Meanwhile, both Locklear and Pena had a trio of hits and scored twice with two RBI, though the former also had two homers.
On Friday the Aces will attempt to make it three consecutive victories, as these two teams line up for game four from Greater Nevada Field with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. PT.