Aces Finish out Slate This Weekend After Missing out on Postseason

Despite splitting six games last week, the Reno Aces have been eliminated from postseason contention after a strong week by Fresno. The Grizzlies (77-55) clinched the PCL Northern Division and were nine games ahead of second place Reno (68-64) Monday morning with just a handful of games remaining.

The Aces finished 3-3 for the week of Aug. 20-26 after dropping two of three on the road to Tacoma and winning two of three at Albuquerque. They play at Salt Lake this week before hosting Albuquerque for four games in the final home stand of the season beginning Friday night.

The club received some good news Monday as Aces infielders Ildemaro Vargas and Kevin Cron have been named to the All-PCL Team.

Vargas, 27, is in his second full season with the Aces. The Venezuela native was selected to represent the Pacific Coast League at the Triple-A All-Star Game in both 2017 and 2018. In 116 games this season, Vargas is second in the PCL with 157 hits, third in triples (10), fifth in total bases (223), and set the longest hitting streak in all of Minor League Baseball this season. From June 24 through Aug. 11, Vargas recorded a hit in all 35 games he played. During that span, he went 57-for-157 (.363) with 11 doubles, two triples and 15 RBIs. His 379 hits in an Aces uniform are the second-most in franchise history behind Cole Gillespie with 399.

Cron, 25, is in his first full Triple-A season. His first game this season came on May 4, coming off an oblique injury suffered in Spring Training. Since then, Cron has played in 96 games for Greg Gross and the Aces. He’s batting .312 (112-for-359) with 25 doubles, 22 home runs, and 91 RBIs lead all of Minor League Baseball since May 4 and his 22 home runs are second-most in the PCL. Cron had a career-year in 2017. With the Double-A Jackson Generals, Cron won the Southern League Most Valuable Player Award, was a mid-season and postseason All-Star and was a MiLB.com Organization All-Star. Additionally, the Texas Christian University product is a two-time PCL Player of the Week Award winner this season.

The Aces now have had a representative on the All-PCL Team in nine of the club’s 10 seasons.