The Cats hit two home runs and Lee Gwaltney worked seven innings for his fourth win of the year as the Cats edged El Paso 6-5 on Saturday night at LaGrave Field.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third when Kelley Gulledge smacked a leadoff home run, his second of the year, for a 1-0 Cats lead. Later in the inning, Ryan Patterson doubled to left, scoring Isa Garcia and Cameron Blair to make it 3-0.
El Paso got on the board in the fourth inning as Kennard Bibbs came into score on an RBI ground out by Jorge Alvarez. In the bottom of the fourth, Michael Bell and 0-for-12 slide at the plate by hitting the first pitch he saw over the fence in left for a 4-1 Cats' lead.
The Diablos got to within a run in the sixth inning as Hector Bernal scored from second base after the Cats were unsuccessful in turning an inning-ending double play. Later in the inning, Juan Camacho doubled to left, scoring Alvarez to narrow the lead to 4-3.
The Cats would add to more in the bottom of the sixth as Pat O'Sullivan collected a one-out single, Kelley Gulledge walked and Charles Carter drove home a run with a bloop single, which was then kicked by the second baseman allowing the second run to score and give the Cats a 6-3 advantage.
El Paso again made it close as they scored two in the seventh on consecutive RBI hits by Bernal and Bibbs to pull within a run at 6-5.
Facing the middle of the El Paso order in the eighth, reliever Alex Morales struck out the side before Dustin Cameron worked a scoreless ninth for his 10th save of the season.
Gwaltney, who allowed five runs on eight hits in seven innings of work got the win to improve to 4-0 on the year. Nick Martin (1-2) suffered the loss after allowing six runs, four earned on six hits in 5 2/3 innings.
With the win, the Cats record improves to 16-6 as they re-established their four-game lead over El Paso in the South.
The finale of the series is on Sunday night at 6:05 p.m. Jae Jung goes for the Cats and Dane De La Rosa is on the hill for El Paso.
