Aviators find 4 homers enough in win over El Paso
One night after hammering a Pacific Coast League-record 11 home runs, Las Vegas Aviators bats weren’t quite so thunderous on Saturday.
But they still made enough noise to beat the division-leading El Paso Chihuahuas 11-2 at Southwest University Park in El Paso, Texas.
Seth Brown hit a pair of homers — his 24th and 25th of the season — and Dustin Fowler clubbed his 22nd and Mark Payton his 20th as the Aviators (61-45) won their second straight against El Paso (63-43) and moved within two games of first place in the PCL’s Pacific Southern Division.
Brown stroked one-on, two-out home runs in the first and sixth innings and added a single. Payton had a solo shot in the second and Fowler hit a two-run homer in the third.
The power display made an easy winner of Las Vegas starter Parker Dunshee (3-4), who worked five innings and gave up three hits, three walks and one run while striking out six. Dunshee exited with an 8-1 lead.
Miguel Romero, Jharel Cotton and Ryan Dull covered the final four innings for the Aviators, yielding just three hits and one run.
Starter Jerry Keel (6-7) took the loss for El Paso.
The Aviators were coming off a 20-11 victory over the Chihuahuas on Friday in which they hit 11 homers, including three by Sean Murphy. Las Vegas rallied with 16 unanswered runs for that win.
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