Aviators score three in fifth, hand Aces 3-1 loss

LuJames Groover kept producing, but one fifth inning changed everything for Reno. Las Vegas scored all three of its runs in that frame and escaped Greater Nevada Field with a 3-1 win, even as Groover’s double in the sixth pushed his on-base streak to 35 games and tied a franchise mark for the fifth-longest run in Aces history.

Reno had spent the first four innings in control behind Mitch Bratt, who struck out three and did not issue a walk while holding Las Vegas scoreless. Then Bratt left in the fifth with an apparent injury after a bunt single, and the game tilted immediately. Las Vegas starter Gage Jump also exited in the fifth with an apparent injury, but the Aviators were the ones who turned the disruption into runs, cashing in for the only scoring burst either club managed all night.

The Aces did not answer until the sixth, when Groover doubled to open the inning and Jacob Amaya brought him home with an RBI groundout. That cut the deficit to 3-1, but Reno never found the kind of sequence needed to erase the fifth-inning damage. Luken Baker and Aramis Garcia each gave the lineup some hard contact, with Baker finishing 2-for-3 with a double and a walk and Garcia going 2-for-4, yet the Aces could not string enough of it together after the early hole.

Reno’s bullpen gave the club a chance to stay close. Gerardo Carrillo, Yilber Díaz and Joe Ross combined for four innings, allowed only two hits and struck out five. Still, five walks across the game and the pitching change around Bratt’s injury proved costly in a tight rivalry matchup where the box score was decided far more by one inning than by any sustained edge.

The loss mattered beyond a single night because of what Groover’s streak signaled. His 35-game on-base run matched the length of Ildemaro Vargas’ franchise record hitting streak from 2018, underscoring how rare Groover’s current run has become in Reno history. It also came in the Silver State Diamond Challenge, the rivalry that dates to 2009 and has long carried extra weight between the Aces and Aviators.

Greater Nevada Field, which has been Reno’s home since 2009 and holds 9,534, saw another narrow chapter in that series. Reno had won the 2025 season series 11-10 and entered 2026 with five straight season-series victories, but Las Vegas took this one by making the fifth inning the only one that mattered.