Oklahoma City Dodgers A Win Away From PCL Title

The Oklahoma City Dodgers are a win away from a Pacific Coast League championship after an 8-3 win over the Round Rock Express on Tuesday night from the Bricktown Ballpark.

The Game 1 win over the Texas Rangers' Triple A affiliate is part of a best-of-three playoff series, the winner of which will head to Las Vegas this weekend for a spot in the Triple A national championship game. The opponent there will be the champion of the International League, either the Durham Bulls or the Norfolk Tides. Durham took Game 1 of that series on Tuesday night 10-5.

Drew Avans, who batted 4 for 4, got the scoring going for the Dodgers in the first on a sharp line-drive single from Ryan Ward.

Oklahoma City increased its lead to 4-0 in the second on the strength of a Yonny Hernandez ground-rule double, a ground out from Hunter Feduccia that scored a run and another Avans base hit, scoring David Dahl, Jorbit Vivas and Hernandez, respectively.

But Round Rock would battle back with runs in each of the middle innings.

That's when Feduccia answered with a homer to deep left-center field. The Dodgers were up 5-3 after 6 innings.

A pair of errors made it 6-3 in the 7th inning before Avans singled to left, scoring Hernandez and Feduccia.

The Dodgers have never won a Pacific Coast League championship in their time at Bricktown Ballpark. Oklahoma City has not boasted a Triple A title of any kind since the Oklahoma City 89ers won the American Association championship in 1996 as an affiliate of the Rangers.

Game 2 is set for 7:05 p.m. Wednesday night in downtown Oklahoma City.

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