PL Northern Colorado Owlz

Rocky Mountain Rains Down Runs to Snap Owlz' Streak

June 21, 2022 - Pioneer League (PL)
Northern Colorado Owlz News Release


GREELEY, Colo. -- A steady stream of Rocky Mountain runs overflowed in Tuesday's middle innings, drowning any Owlz hopes for four-straight wins.

The 16-4 loss ends a three-game winning streak for NoCo (11-12) and signals the club's first loss to the Vibes (5-19) this season. With 13 fresh faces, though, this is a whole new Vibes team.

Rocky Mountain amounted 16 runs on 17 hits, eventually coaxing NoCo into putting infielder Jordan Garr on the mound. That may be all you need to know about how this game ended up.

But that's not how it started. Each starting pitcher retired the first seven batters he saw. The Owlz didn't record a hit until the third inning. The Vibes didn't record a hit until the inning after that.

Pretty much as soon as the Owlz got a hit, they took the lead. Zach West smacked a single into right field before Marshall Rich recorded hit number two with a single of his own. The next at-bat, West wheeled down the third base line on Alex Jackson's RBI groundout to give the Owlz a 1-0 lead.

And then the Vibes hits started to trickle in. A double and two singles gave the lead to Rocky Mountain for a time. Cam Phelts' fourth-inning triple gave way to another RBI groundout, this time from Brandon Crosby, and NoCo knotted the game at two runs apiece.

The fifth inning is when the flood started.

Owlz starter Alex Smith (L, 0-4) surrendered seven hits off the first eight batters in the inning: four singles and three doubles. Of the seven batters who reached with a hit, six of them scored, giving Rocky Mountain an 8-2 lead.

Phelts throttled another three-bagger and Crosby cashed in another RBI in the bottom of that inning, but the flood waters were rising too fast for NoCo to keep up. The Vibes put up six more runs in the seventh and swallowed up any hope for a comeback in this one.

Rich recorded a ribbie in the seventh to cap NoCo's scoring, knocking in West for the long-locked shortstop's second run scored. He and Phelts finished Tuesday as the only Owlz to cross home plate. Phelts and Rich each recorded two hits, the only Owlz to do so.

On the flip side, Rocky Mountain saw five of its batters amass multiple hits. Two of those guys, Andrew Hanson and Cesar Lopez, played their first game with the Vibes on Tuesday. Hanson hit home six RBI while Lopez chipped in four RBI. Talk about a debut.

NoCo closes this eight-game homestead with a Wednesday matinee. First pitch from Jackson Field is scheduled for 1:05 p.m., and anyone who buys a ticket for the Owlz game also gets free admission to the Hailstorm FC game, which kicks off from Jackson Sports Complex at 7 p.m. Wednesday night.

Check out the Northern Colorado Owlz Statistics



Pioneer League Stories from June 21, 2022


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