Link Report for Sat. 7/14

[Mass Haas]

Raptors win in dramatic fashion

Roy Burton, Ogden Standard-Examiner staff

 

OGDEN — The Raptors have been riding a roller coaster since the Fourth of July, when they started a three-game losing streak, followed it with four straight wins, then dropped two.

 

Ogden kept up its wild ride Saturday night in an up-and-down contest against Helena at Lindquist Field, coming out on top on Jose Capellan’s walk-off double with one out in the bottom of the ninth for an 11-10 victory.

 

With the game tied at 10-10 after Ogden rallied for the second time and Brewers reliever Michael White in the mound, Pat Stover hit the ball as far as it could go without leaving Lindquist Field for a double off the top of the wall in straightaway center field to extend his on-base streak to 14 games.

 

Brewers manager Jeff Isom elected to intentionally walk Alex Santana to set up a double play opportunity, but what it really set up was Capellan’s game-winning double over the head of center fielder Tyrone Taylor.

 

Stover trotted home easily and the Raptors, who had been 0-10 this season when trailing after the seventh inning, mobbed Capellan near second base.

 

Down two runs in the eighth, the Raptors rallied for the second time in the game after falling behind by three runs in the third inning and four runs in the seventh.

 

Santana scored on a Connor Whalen wild pitch behind the back of Eric Smith. Smith, was 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored, then looped a soft single over shortstop to bring in Capellan with the tying run.

 

Devin Shines, who homered and drove in three runs in a 3-for-5 performance for Ogden. His double in the seventh began Ogden’s second comeback when the Raptors added two runs. Stover came up with the bases loaded with two outs in the inning and drove the ball hard into the right-center gap, but Michael Reed was able to track it down for the out.

 

That only delayed the comeback for Ogden (16-10), which stands in first place in the South Division, three games ahead of Grand Junction with two weeks to go in the first half, Ogden Raptors reliever Sawil Gonzalez (2-0) struck out the Helena side in the top of the ninth to earn the win. White (1-2) took the loss for Helena (8-18), the last place team in the North Division.

 

Brewers starter Will West sat down the Raptors lineup in order the first time through, not allowing a runner until leadoff hitter Jeremy Rathjen reached on an error in the fourth. Eric Smith followed with Ogden’s first hit, an RBI single.

 

The Raptors did the rest of their damage in the fifth inning, stringing together five hits with two outs, capped by Shines’ high fly ball into the left field Tar Pit, his sixth homer, third in the Pioneer League.

 

West was charged with six hits and six runs, five earned, in five innings.

 

Ogden starter Matt Laney fell behind early on an RBI single by Adam Giacolone in the first. Laney threw two pitches and got two outs in the second inning, but the rest of the inning didn’t end so easily as Michael Turay doubled and Yonki Hernandez lined a homer over the left field wall.

 

Laney, who was off the hook after the Raptors tied it with their five-run fifth, also allowed six hits and six runs, five earned, in five innings.

 

Ogden and Helena play the second of four contests this afternoon at 4:00 PM (3:00 Central) at Lindquist Field.

[Mass Haas]

I will say it's been a long time (if ever) since a trio of Helena high school picks looked so enticing at the top of the H-Crew lineup -- Taylor, Reed, and McFarland, that's pretty sweet!

[igor67]

I'll second Mass's comments 3 teenagers hitting well in the Pioneer League is pretty exciting. Which leads me to suggest that even though things have been pretty fluid in our prospect ranking for awhile it feels like this last month and a half could really scramble our perceptions in some big ways. So many of the big names with early starts like Nelson have not been falling, but kind of stuck in neutral. Others like Gindl have somewhat turned it around, but will it stick enough? Morris is making me a believer and Gennet has been consistent in his own way, but neither has yet gotten to that level of undisputed top position prospect.