Las Vegas 3, Salt Lake 2

The Las Vegas 51s avoided elimination today in their Pacific Coast League championship series against visiting Salt Lake, beating the Bees 3-2 when closer Cory Wade recorded a strikeout with two runners on base for the final out.

In the first two games of the series at Salt Lake, Las Vegas dropped one-run decisions with the winning run for the Bees scoring in the ninth. Today, they extended their season to the fourth game of the series at 7:05 p.m. Saturday, by preventing a run to score in the final inning.

The 51s scored twice in the sixth inning to take the lead for good, including a solo home run from Dustin Lawley to start the inning. The eventual winning run came on Ruben Tejada’s run-scoring single to plate Brandon Hicks.

Giancarlo Alvarado nearly picked up a quality start even though he walked five batters. Those play-off jitters, huh? Nice to see some life from the 51s though, who force at least a game four in the series here.

Key Stats

Kirk Nieuwenhuis: 2-for-4, 1 BB

Ruben Tejada: 1-for-3, 1 RBI

Dustin Lawley: 3-for-4, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 R

Eric Campbell: 1-for-2, 1 BB, 1 RBI

Carlos Alvarado: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 5 BB, 1 ER, 4 K

Cory Wade: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 ER, 2 K

(Team Report)