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FRESNO, CA – The Grizzlies prevented the Sacramento River Cats from clinching a division championship with a 9-5 win on Thursday night at Chukchansi Park.  Travis Denker connected for his fourth home run in the last six games and Scott McClain collected RBIs number 102 and 103 as his pursuit of the franchise's single-season record continues.
 
Fresno got things started with a single run in the bottom of the first frame. Lead-off batter Ben Copeland doubled, and scored on a single by Travis Denker. The Grizzlies added another run in the second inning when Jake Wald's ground-rule double scored Brian Horwitz for a 2-0 lead.
 
The River Cats answered in the top of the third inning when Justin Knoedler's sacrifice fly scored Donnie Murphy.  Sacramento tied the score when Aaron Cunningham's ground-out allowed Gregorio Petit to score the second run of the game for the visitors.
 
Fresno managed a single run for the third straight inning in the 3rd.  With the bases loaded and one out, Justin Leone's sacrifice fly scored Travis Denker to put the home team on top 3-2.  Sacramento again rallied to tie the score with two outs in their next trip to the plate.  Wes Bankston walked, advanced on an error, and scored on Petit's RBI-single to knot the score at 3-3.  
 
From there however, the Grizzlies pulled away, beginning with a big 4th inning courtesy of Denker.  After singles by Steve Holm and Copeland, the second-baseman stepped to the plate with one out and deposited a Vin Mazzaro fastball into the left-field bleachers for a three-run home run, his fourth round-tripper of the homestand.  
 

Fresno added an additional pair of runs in support of starter Steve Hammond in the bottom of the sixth on Scott McClain's two-out, two-run single.  Hammond earned his fourth win of the season with 7.0 strong innings of work, during which he allowed just two earned runs while struking out three.  River Cats starter Mazzaro surrendered eight runs on 11 hits in 5.1 innings of work in his fourth Triple-A start.  
 
Sacramento briefly made things interesting in the top of the ninth against reliever Geno Espineli.  After the sidewinding left-hander struck out Jeff Baisley to open the inning, Bankston and Murphy hit back-to-back mammoth home runs, the first two homers allowed by Espineli all season in the PCL.  But he retired Petit and former Grizzly Justin Knoedler to nail down the 9-5 win.
 

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