From behind a closed clubhouse door came the sound of bottles clinking and players whooping. The noise surged as River Cats left-hander Lenny DiNardo emerged, soaked, looking for ice – for his pitching arm, not the bottles.

"We've got that never-say-die attitude," DiNardo later said.

And the result to match.

With a 13-2 victory at Raley Field on Sunday, the River Cats came back from a two-games-to-none deficit against the Reno Aces, clinching their best-of-five opening-round playoff series and a spot in the Pacific Coast League Championship Series.

Only once before had a River Cats team dropped the first two games of a five-game playoff series and come back to win. That was in 2007, when they eliminated Salt Lake, then went on to win the PCL championship.

Sunday the River Cats looked every bit the confident team they had professed to be even while struggling in Reno, and will next face the Omaha Storm Chasers in this year's championship series, which begins Tuesday in Omaha.

"We outplayed them," River Cats manager Darren Bush said. "No disrespect to (Reno), but we fell behind 2-0, and we just outplayed them three straight days.

"We come home on our field and the starting pitching just took over," Bush said. "Those three guys dominated their lineup three straight days. And the bullpen, same thing."

The River Cats pitchers held the Aces – the highest-scoring team in the PCL during the regular season – to just six runs in three games at Raley Field.

DiNardo, the veteran left-hander making his second start since being recalled from Double-A Midland on Sept. 5, struck out four and allowed three hits and two earned runs in seven innings to earn the win.

"You'd see him before the game and you'd think he was pitching Game 7 of the World Series," said third baseman Josh Donaldson, who was 4 for 5. "He wanted to go out there and succeed, and people saw that in his eyes."

DiNardo gave up a two-run home run to Ryan Langerhans in the second inning after a Cody Ransom double, then retired the next 14 batters before Mark Hallberg cued a double to shallow right field in the sixth.

"It's damage control – you don't want to give up a four- or five-run inning," DiNardo said. "Give up two runs and you're OK, especially with this (Sacramento) offense."

Quiet the first two innings, that offense broke out in the third against Reno starter Tom Layne. After two walks to start the inning, Wes Timmons singled to load the bases. Chris Carter's sacrifice fly scored a run.

Donaldson, Adrian Cardenas and Grant Green each followed with RBI singles, and the River Cats scored a fifth run when Aces first baseman Andy Tracy let a throw go by him on a potential groundout. The rout was on.

The Cats continued to hit well with runners in scoring position – 13 hits in the last two games of the series (four in the first three) – a trend Donaldson said played a part in the turnaround "100 percent."

"When we went to Reno, we had guys on, we just weren't taking advantage of the opportunities," Donaldson said. "When we came back here, I really feel like winning that first game here was the biggest thing. After we won the first game, we knew we had what it took to come back."

Green, called up to Triple-A last Wednesday in time to make his debut in the series opener, had eight hits in the four games he started. He had three RBIs Sunday, as did Cardenas and Donaldson, who doubled twice.

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