PL Ogden Raptors

Seventh-Straight Raptors Win Is Marathon Slugfest

Published on July 15, 2019 under Pioneer League (PL)
Ogden Raptors News Release


MISSOULA, MT - For most of their stretch of 17 wins in the last 19 games, the Ogden Raptors have pulled away and demoralized their opponents for comfortable victories.

Sunday evening, the Raptors put the Missoula Osprey in an early hole...but then received a fight from their hosts.

The teams went blow-for-blow for over four hours, and when the dust settled, Ogden came away with a 17-11 victory.

The win was a season-best seventh-consecutive for the Raptors, who also moved to eight games ahead of the Grand Junction Rockies for first place in the Pioneer League's South division with 10 contests left.

Just three more Ogden wins and/or Rockies losses will clinch the Raptors' second-straight first-half title and playoff spot.

In their first game of 2019 against Missoula - who entered the game in a tie for first in the North division thanks to their three wins in four games against Orem combined with Ogden's sweep of Idaho Falls - the Raptors struck right away. Justin Yurchak struck out swinging on a pitch in the dirt but reached when the catcher - thinking he caught it cleanly - threw the ball around the infield as if it were a normal strikeout. With one out, Ryan Ward smashed a double that carried over the left fielder's head to score Yurchak. Brandon Lewis singled through the left side to plate Ward, and a throwing error on a ground ball off Sauryn Lao's bat allowed Lewis to come around for a 3-0 lead.

One inning later, that advantage was cut to one thanks to a 482-foot, two-run homer by Missoula's Francis Martinez.

The Raptors got those runs back and more in the third, as Ward opened with his second two-bagger and scored when a Lewis pop fly fell near the line in shallow right. Sam McWilliams singled, and with one out Joe Vranesh hit it out to right-center, his second homer of the season and a three-run shot to make it 7-2.

Undeterred, the Osprey put two on against Elio Serrano in the home half of the third before Spencer Brickhouse tripled to right-center. Brickhouse tried to score when the relay throw got by Lewis, but the third baseman hustled to collect the ball and fired home to retire the runner.

A walk by Serrano led to a pitching change, and Mark Mixon made his Raptors debut by inducing a flyout before giving up Martinez's second homer of the night - this one measuring 468 feet - to pull Missoula within one again.

In the top of the fourth, Yurchak took the count full and then cleared the tall right-field fence with his eighth homer of the year. With one out, three-straight Raptors walked to force the Osprey into a pitching change, and Lao greeted the new hurler with a two-run single to left field. Vranesh singled to right to plate one, and then the two executed a double-steal as Lao crossed easily for the fifth run of the inning and a 12-6 lead.

Vranesh came up big on defense in the bottom of the fifth. Missoula loaded the bases with no one out, but a line drive to center was snared on a slide by Vranesh for the first out. A run scored, and one more was knocked in by a Martinez single, but the damage could have been worse if not for the catch.

Ogden got one of those runs back in the top of the sixth, when McWilliams went deep to right-center for his seventh blast of the season. In the home half, however, an error allowed the Osprey to continue to hit past three batters in the frame and the fourth hitter launched a two-run homer to make it 13-10.

After coming up empty with the bases loaded and no one out in the seventh, the Raptors broke the game open for good in the eighth. Lewis singled and McWilliams doubled to put two in scoring position, and Vranesh capitalized with one out by knocking in his fifth run of the night. Jeremy Arocho got into the act with a tapper to third that wasn't picked up cleanly, scoring McWilliams, and after a walk to Ramon Rodriguez, Yurchak scorched a ball under the glove of Brickhouse at first base for two more runs and a 17-10 lead.

Missoula's final run came via wild pitch in the eighth when they put two on with no one out, but Reza Aleaziz didn't allow anything else in that inning or the ninth.

Mixon earned the win for Ogden, pitching a perfect fourth after recording the final two outs in the third.

Ogden and Missoula continue their series with game two on Monday night at 7:15.

Check out the Ogden Raptors Statistics

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Pioneer League Stories from July 15, 2019


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