Rainiers’ power surge falls short in 11-10 slugfest at El Paso

Colt Emerson, Brennen Davis and Brian O’Keefe kept Tacoma alive in a game that never settled down, but the Rainiers still walked out of Southwest University Park with an 11-10 loss after four lead changes and one final missed stop in the late innings.

Tacoma looked in control early, jumping to a 6-0 lead, only to watch El Paso answer with a seven-run fourth inning and keep pushing from there. Pablo Reyes powered the Chihuahuas’ comeback with two home runs and three RBI, and the home crowd of 6,962 watched a 3:01 slugfest that stayed tense until the end. Tacoma entered the night at 16-19, El Paso at 17-18, and the standings barely mattered once the bats got rolling.

The Rainiers did enough damage to win most nights. Emerson, Davis and O’Keefe combined to go 8-for-13 with two doubles, three home runs, six RBI, two walks and five runs scored, a line that tells you exactly why Tacoma kept answering every time El Paso tried to break the game open. The trio did not just pile up empty swings. They hit for impact, kept traffic on the bases and repeatedly dragged Tacoma back into a game that could have slipped away much earlier.

Davis supplied one of the loudest swings of the night, launching a two-run homer that traveled 397 feet and left the bat at 106.0 mph. Emerson and O’Keefe also went deep, and that power surge gave Tacoma multiple chances to separate. Instead, the Rainiers could never land the last punch, and El Paso kept finding just enough offense to stay ahead when the score tightened late.

The loss fit a rough early-May stretch for Tacoma. The Rainiers had already dropped the series opener 10-9 in extra innings on May 5, then fell again 4-1 on May 7, leaving the Wednesday thriller as the center piece of a series that turned on big swings, not small margins. Tacoma’s lineup showed plenty of firepower, but in a game built on momentum and counterpunches, the final outs belonged to El Paso.