Link Report for Wed. 9/7 -- Helena's penultimate (OK, next to last) game

[Mass Haas]

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[Mass Haas]

Wednesday's Daily Menu:

 

Nashville: Season complete; 71-73 record, 3rd place finish in the division, nine games back; actually, tied for 6th best record in 16-team league

 

Huntsville: Season complete; 64-73 record, 8th best record in the 10-team league

 

Brevard County: Season complete; 62-76 record, 11th best record in the 12-team league; 35-33 in the second half, however

 

Wisconsin: Season complete; 67-72 record, tied for 10th best record in the 16-team league; 38-32 in a nice first half

Helena: RHP Kevin Shackelford at Billings (Reds), 7:50 PM pre-game, 8:05 gametime

Live Audio Link -- Select the Helena feed from the MiLB main audio page

 

Arizona Rookie (Maryvale): Season complete; 17-39 record, worst in the 13-team league

 

DSL Brewers: Season complete; 44-27 regular season, first-round playoff series loss

[Mass Haas]

Follow Wednesday's action as it happens:

 

Helena

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PIO North
	Club	W	L	PCT	GB	*ELIM #	Home	Away	L 10	Streak
	Great Falls	24	12	.667	-	-	13-6	11-6	8-2	L1
	Billings	23	13	.639	1.0	2	13-4	10-9	7-3	W3
*	Missoula	15	21	.417	9.0	E	9-8	6-13	1-9	L4
	Helena	11	25	.306	13.0	E	6-13	5-12	4-6	W1

[Mass Haas]

Final: Helena 8 @Billings (Reds) 4

Despite loss, Mustangs remain in postseason hunt

By Greg Rachac of The Billings Gazette

 

The Mustangs’ clubhouse may have been as subdued as it’s been all season Wednesday night.

Following an 8-4 loss to Helena at Dehler Park, their postseason fate hung in the balance, hinging on the outcome of a game some 340 miles to the west.

But thanks to a Great Falls loss in Missoula that came 30 minutes later, the Mustangs still have life.

Billings, which remains one game back of division-leading Great Falls, has been inching closer to a playoff berth for the past week, and now the scenario is cut and dried entering the final day of the Pioneer League regular season:

On Thursday, the Mustangs need a win over Helena coupled with a Missoula victory over the Voyagers. That circumstance — and only that circumstance — will send them into the postseason.

The Mustangs are expected to put right-hander Carlos Gonzalez (0-1) on the mound Thursday night to oppose Helena’s Tyler Cravy (3-4), who was recently named the league’s pitcher of the week.

“Once you start putting extra pressure on yourself it will cave in on you,” Mustangs first baseman Robert Maddox said. “We’re just going to come out and play nine innings of hard baseball.

“It doesn’t matter what Great Falls does. If we don’t win, it won’t matter.”

If Wednesday’s game had a distinct playoff feel, Thursday will bring even more tension.

The Mustangs have been battling Great Falls tooth and nail for the North division’s second-half crown and the league’s final playoff berth since winning eight of nine games to close out August.

Whichever team emerges will face Missoula, the North’s first-half champion, in a best-of-three first round series beginning Friday.

Billings has missed the playoffs in three of the last four seasons, and hasn’t been there since 2008.

But the Mustangs have been on a roll of late, having won seven of their last 11. And they don’t want to stop now.

“We’ve got a good bunch of guys and we’d like to keep playing,” first-year Mustangs manager Pat Kelly said. “So we’ll see what happens.”

Added Maddox: “Baseball players want to play as long as they can. Hopefully we can get in (the playoffs) and see what we do from there.”

The first step is to play better than they did Wednesday night.

But credit Helena. It took advantage of some timely hitting and some wildness from Mustangs pitchers. Beyond that, the Brewers scored five of their runs with two outs.

Kenny Allison started it with a broken-bat flare that scored Kyle Dhanani with two outs in the second. Tyler Roberts tacked on a two-out, two-run homer in the fourth, and Dhanani later came through with an RBI single in a like situation in the sixth.

The Mustangs couldn’t capitalize on a power effort from starter Ismael Guillon. The left-handed Guillon allowed three hits while striking out a season-high nine through five innings.

Reliever El’Hajj Muhammad (2-2) was effective, but he took the loss for a battered bullpen.

Junior Arias hit a solo home run for the Mustangs in the ninth — his eighth of the year — but it proved fruitless.

“It was a bad day at the ballpark,” Maddox said. “It just came at an unfortunate time when we’re trying to make the playoffs.”

The loss snapped Billings’ nine-game home winning streak. Still, a new day brings a new opportunity.

“At least we know what we’re playing for,” Kelly said. “I’d much rather have something to play for on the last day of the season than already have my plane ticket home.”

NOTES: In the seventh, Helena RHP Brandon Williamson returned to same mound where he was hit in the head by a Kurtis Muller line drive on July 1. Williamson missed a month an a half with a concussion before returning to the Brewers’ pitching staff on Aug. 17.

Photos by Casey Page / Gazette Staff

The Mustangs’ Ryan Wright jumps over Helena runner Kenny Allison as the throw goes wide of the base on an error in the second inning.

 

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The Mustangs’ Robert Maddox, right, slides safely into home plate past the tag of Helena catcher Tyler Roberts for a run to tie the game in the fourth inning.

 

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[Mass Haas]

Brewers keep Billings in second place

Helena Independent Record

The bottom half of Helena’s batting order made up for a lackluster performance by the top half and powered the Brewers to an 8-4 victory against the Billings Mustangs in front of 2,493 fans Wednesday night at Dehler Park in Billings.

With a win, the Mustangs (23-14) would have moved into a tie for first place in the Pioneer League’s North Division with Great Falls (24-13) with one game remaining in the season. The Mustangs own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Voyagers.

The top four batters in Helena’s lineup finished 2 for 18 with four runs scored and an RBI, but the bottom five in the order each registered at least one hit and collectively finished 8 for 20 with four runs scored and six RBIs.

Kyle Dhanani, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound third baseman out of Blaine, Wash., led the way at 3 for 4 with two RBIs and a run scored in the fifth spot in the order. Hitting eighth was John Dishon. The 5-11, 193-pound right fielder from Beaumont, Texas, went 2 for 4 with a run scored and was the only other Helena player with multiple hits. Catcher Tyler Roberts, meanwhile, made his only hit count, as he sent a pitch over the outfield wall for a two-run home run in the top of the fourth inning to give the Brewers a 3-0 lead.

Billings tied the score in the bottom of the fourth, but the Brewers tacked on five unanswered — one in the sixth and two more in both the eighth and ninth innings — to pull away. The Mustangs scored their only other run in the bottom of the ninth on a solo home run by designated hitter Junior Arias.

On the mound, Kevin Shackelford pitched six innings and picked up the win to improve to 3-5. The 6-5, 215-pound right-handed pitcher from Charlotte, N.C., gave up six hits and allowed three earned runs, while striking out one Mustang. Relievers Brandon Williamson and Jacob Barnes entered in the seventh and ninth innings, respectively, and combined to allow three hits and one earned run in the final three frames.

 

Helena Box Score

Playing for pride and winning this wek, nice; Brewers 4-for-5 on the basepaths; Max Walla did not play...

 

Helena Play-by-Play