51s fall in four games in PCL conference series against Salt Lake

By Las Vegas Sun Staff (contact)

Saturday, Sept. 7, 2013 | 4:06 p.m.

The Las Vegas 51s' season ended today in the Pacific Coast League conference championship series with a 4-3 loss to the visiting Salt Lake Bees at Cashman Field.

All four games of the best-of-five game series were decided by one run, but the 51s couldn’t prevail in the close games. They dropped the series, 3-1.

The 51s had a runner on third base with two outs in the ninth inning, but Kirk Nieuwenhuis struck out swinging to end the game.

Nieuwenhuis led off the game with a solo home run, his second home run of the series, to give Las Vegas an early lead.

However, Las Vegas had just six hits the remainder of the game, including Mike Baxter’s run-scoring double in the eighth to trim the 51s’ deficit to one run.

Nieuwenhuis and Baxter each had two hits for Las Vegas, and Jamie Hoffmann doubled and scored in the fourth inning.

Fresno advances to play the Omaha Storm Chasers in the PCL championship series.