The River Cats are now sitting atop the Pacific Coast League South Division with slightly more cushion between them and the Fresno Grizzlies after defeating the visiting Las Vegas 51s 3-2 on Monday night in front of 8,019 fans at Raley Field.

Prior to Monday night, the River Cats were involved in a heated five-game battle against division rivals, the Fresno Grizzlies. The Cats managed to take four out of five games, allowing them to clinch the playoff tiebreaker.

With visibly less enthusiasm than seen in recent games, fans filed into the stadium.

The Cats didn’t give fans much to cheer about until the top of the fourth inning when 51’s pitcher Zach Jackson walked Travis Buck and Michael Taylor.

With Adrian Cardenas at bat, Jackson skipped a pitch through the dirt across home plate allowing Buck and Taylor both to steal second and third. Jackson walked Cardenas to first, loading the bases for Cats catcher Anthony Recker: cue the highland warrior music.

Buck scored on Recker’s sacrifice fly to right field, finally giving fans something to be excited about. Jermaine Mitchell kept the pressure on with a double to left-center field bringing home Taylor to put the Cats up 2-0 going into the fifth.

Las Vegas didn’t answer back until the sixth.

Vegas’ shortstop Jonathan Diaz gave Cats pitcher Travis Banwart something to think about as he crept five yards off of first base in the bottom of the sixth.

With 71 RBIs on the season, Jarret Hoffpauir doubled down the left-field line moving the antsy Diaz to third.

51s first baseman Mike Jacobs’ sacrifice fly brought in Diaz’ run to put Las Vegas on the board for the first time.

The Cats made a pitching change going into the eighth by bringing on Jon Hunton, who had a good showing in his last appearance for the Cats against the Grizzlies on Aug. 26. He pitched 1.2 innings with two strikeouts, allowing only one hit and no earned runs. Unfortunately for him, Monday night wasn’t a similar story.

Las Vegas’ second baseman Manny Mayorson singled to right field off of Hunton and then advanced to second base after Taylor’s fielding error.

Hoffpauir slugged Hunton’s pitch into left-center field allowing Mayorson to even up the score at 2-2, at which point the crowd celebrated his gift of a run by singing the Happy Birthday song.

Cats pitcher Travis Blackley replaced Hunton and put an end to the 51s’ scoring opportunities.

The stage was perfectly set for a Cats victory with a tied ballgame at the top of the ninth and Recker first up to bat. With highland warrior music blaring and 8,000 people screaming, Recker skirted a ground ball along the foul line deep into right field for a triple.

51s pitcher Merkin Valdez, having just come on in the ninth, threw a wild fourth ball for the Cats’ Jermaine Mitchell. Catcher Raul Chavez watched the pitch skid between his legs, looking back toward home plate in time to see Recker sliding in for the win.

The Cats victory keeps them atop the South Division standings with a record of 75-62.

Last night’s game was the 51s’ ninth setback in the last 10 outings. They will try to improve their luck against the Cats, as their four-game series will last through Thursday.

Photo credit: Steven Chea