Reno rallies late, beats Sugar Land 4-3 on walk-off single

Reno’s first walk-off victory of 2026 did more than end a tense night at Greater Nevada Field. It showed the Aces could take a punch, absorb a blown late lead and still manufacture a finish when the game had already started slipping away.

LuJames Groover delivered the decisive single in the bottom of the ninth, sending Reno past Sugar Land 4-3 after the Space Cowboys had tied it with a two-out rally in the top half. Ryan Waldschmidt, who had been stuck in an 0-for-13 stretch, sparked the response with a ground-rule double to right field, and Groover followed in a 2-2 count with a hit into the right-center gap that let the home crowd exhale and head out happy. Groover finished 3-for-5 and drove in the winner.

The Aces had spent much of the night in position to win a clean, tighter game. Mitch Bratt, a 22-year-old left-hander and the Arizona Diamondbacks’ No. 14 prospect, gave Reno exactly that kind of start, allowing one run on three hits over five innings with six strikeouts and no walks. It was the first time a Reno starter had reached six strikeouts without a walk in 2026, and the first such outing by an Aces starter since Tommy Henry did it on May 28, 2025, at Round Rock. Bratt’s season line now sits at five games, 19.0 innings, 16 strikeouts and a 2.84 ERA.

Reno opened the scoring on Matt O’Neill’s solo homer in the second, his third of the season and a tie for second on the club at the time. Sugar Land answered immediately when Kellen Strahm launched his second home run of the year in the next half-inning, then chased Reno again in the sixth. Jax Biggers started that rally with a single and Collin Price finished it with an RBI groundout for a 3-2 Space Cowboys lead.

The Aces’ bullpen had looked ready to close the door, striking out four straight before the ninth-inning wobble. Even after the save opportunity disappeared, Kade Strowd still picked up the win, while Reno’s late swing sequence restored order in a matchup that has repeatedly tilted late between these clubs. Sugar Land had beaten Reno with a walk-off homer in 2025, and the Space Cowboys also owned another one-run walk-off over the Aces last season. This time, Reno got the final word and moved to 16-15, matching Sugar Land’s 16-15 mark while extending its winning streak and giving the club a much sturdier feel than the score had seemed likely to provide after the ninth-inning tie.