Rainiers Walk Off Aviators, Carson Taylor Scores on Fielder’s Choice

Tacoma found another late escape at Cheney Stadium, and this one came with a rare ending. Carson Taylor scored the winning run on a Colt Emerson fielder’s choice in the ninth inning Saturday night, giving the Rainiers a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Las Vegas Aviators and their second walk-off win of the season.

The finish fit the feel of a game that stayed tight from the first inning onward. Tacoma opened the scoring with a first-inning sequence that started when Ryan Bliss doubled, Rhylan Thomas singled, and Victor Labrada was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Las Vegas answered in the fourth and briefly moved ahead 2-1 on Joey Meneses’ home run and a Junior Perez RBI groundout, but Tacoma kept finding answers.

Emerson tied the game in the fifth with a triple, then Labrada put Tacoma back in front in the sixth with his first home run of the season. The Aviators refused to fade, drawing even again in the seventh on Henry Bolte’s RBI single and setting up the ninth-inning tension that turned Cheney Stadium into a sprint to the plate.

Tacoma did not need a towering shot or a flash of power to finish it. Taylor led off the ninth with an infield single, Bliss laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Thomas beat out a ground ball. That set up Emerson, who chopped the first pitch he saw to second base and forced the defense into a fielder’s choice that sent Taylor home with the winner. It was the kind of crisp, pressure-packed sequence that can define a homestand, especially in a game decided by one run.

Emerson finished 1-for-5 with a triple and two RBI, and the walk-off was the third of his career. His previous walk-off hit came for Everett on June 14, 2025, a reminder that the 20-year-old shortstop has already built a reputation for coming through in the biggest moments. He has also reached base safely in 23 of his first 26 games with Tacoma this season, a steady presence that showed again when the game was on the line.

Tacoma’s bullpen backed the comeback with 3.0 scoreless innings, preserving the lead after the middle-inning swings. The win lifted the Rainiers to 16-16 and dropped Las Vegas to 17-13 in a six-game set that doubled as a rematch of the 2025 Pacific Coast League Championship Series. Tacoma will go for a series split Sunday at 1:35 p.m. with Randy Dobnak on the mound, carrying the kind of momentum only a walk-off can provide.