Groover's grand slam sparks Reno comeback, Aces win fourth straight

LuJames Groover turned a shaky night into a roster-moving statement, crushing his first Triple-A home run for a grand slam as Reno erased an 8-3 deficit and rolled past Salt Lake 14-8 at Greater Nevada Field. The Aces were down five in the middle of the fifth inning, then detonated for five runs in the seventh and five more in the eighth, a late surge that showed how quickly this lineup can flip a game and how many bats are forcing attention from above.

Groover’s swing was the center of it all. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ No. 10 prospect finished 3-for-5 with six RBI, the most by any Aces player in a game this season and a career high, and his grand slam gave Reno the kind of instant-impact inning that can change the conversation around a young hitter. That was the Aces’ second grand slam in the first 11 games of the season, putting them on pace for 27 over a full year, which would be a franchise record. Reno had already matched its own 2025 total of 11 grand slams before April was half over, a sign that the power is not coming from one corner of the lineup.

The supporting cast kept the pressure on. Ryan Waldschmidt added his first Triple-A homer, Aramis Garcia also went deep, and Reno matched a franchise record with two triples in the game. Kristian Robinson, Jack Hurley and the rest of the order gave the Aces multiple layers of damage, the kind of depth that makes a Triple-A lineup far more than a place for prospect watching. This was the first time Reno had scored at least five runs in consecutive innings since Aug. 2, 2025, at Las Vegas, and it came one night after Robinson’s grand slam helped fuel a 9-4 win in the series opener.

The pitching side did its part after the comeback started. Yilber Díaz earned the win with a scoreless inning, and Gerardo Carrillo covered the final six outs for the save. Reno improved to 7-4 and extended its winning streak to four games, while the early-season power binge suggested this team’s most MLB-relevant bats are already making a loud case that more major-league decisions could be coming soon.