Sacramento wins Triple-A title

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Brooks Conrad and Donnie Murphy each had two hits and drove in a run Tuesday night to help the Sacramento River Cats beat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees 4-1 and win the Triple-A championship game for the second straight year.

Wes Bankston and Conrad had one-out RBI singles off Yankees prospect Ian Kennedy (0-2) in the first inning, and Casey Rogowski gave the Oakland Athletics' affiliate a 3-0 lead with a run-scoring fielder's choice.

Kennedy didn't allow another run after that, and struck out seven in five innings. He gave up seven hits and walked one.

Murphy added an RBI single off Steven Jackson in the sixth to extend the lead.

The Triple-A championship was reborn as a single-game event in 2006 after five years without a matchup between the winners of the International and Pacific Coast leagues. With the River Cats' win, the PCL has won all three titles in the new format.

Tucson won the 2006 title, and Sacramento beat Richmond in last year's championship game.

Conrad, the second baseman, made a diving catch of Eric Duncan's line drive and threw to first to double off Matt Carson to end the game. He pumped his fist, and the River Cats then calmly gathered near the mound to celebrate the championship.

The River Cats started Brad Knox but first-year manager Todd Steverson pulled him after two scoreless innings and used five relievers to finish off the game.

Chris Gissell (2-1) threw three scoreless innings, retiring the final nine batters he faced after allowing a leadoff single by Chris Basak in the third inning.

The Yankees got their only run on Ramiro Pena's first-ever Triple-A hit, a seventh-inning single to right off Henry Rodriguez. Pena was called up from Double-A Trenton prior to the game.

Scranton also squandered a chance to score after loading the bases with two outs in the first inning. Matt Carson hit a line drive to deep center field, but Carlos Gonzalez backed onto the track to flag it down.

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