Ogden, UT - Rarely have the Brewers in 2018 allowed a big inning late in a tight ballgame. Yet against the league's highest scoring offense on a hot Saturday night, Helena took a knockout punch, as the Ogden Raptors plated five runs in the eighth, turning a 6-3 Brewers lead
Ogden, UT - Rarely have the Brewers in 2018 allowed a big inning late in a tight ballgame. Yet against the league's highest scoring offense on a hot Saturday night, Helena took a knockout punch, as the Ogden Raptors plated five runs in the eighth, turning a 6-3 Brewers lead into a 8-6 Raptors advantage. Ogden won by that final, putting the Brewers a season worst three games back of first place Great Falls with just nine games left in the first half.
Helena's offense came out swinging early as David Fry and Je'Von Ward hit solo home runs in the second inning, giving the Brewers the early two run advantage. Brewers starter Scott Sunitsch struck out the side in order in the first, but then allowed a run to score on a one out single from Drew Avans in the bottom of the second. Sunitsch stranded the bases loaded in that frame with no further damage, and held the Raptors in check in the third and the fourth innings.
For the second straight night, a four run inning gave the Brewers a big lead, as with two on and two out in the fifth, Eddie Silva doubled home a pair, extending the advantage to 4-1. The next batter was LG Castillo, who smoked a ball over the left field wall for his second homer, making it 6-1 Helena.
Ogden though responded in the bottom of the frame, as a leadoff walk to Ronny Brito scored on a one out double from Miguel Vargas, ending the night for Sunitsch. Aaron Ashby (L, 0-2) then surrendered a single to Avans that cut the lead to 6-3, but then got the next two to keep it a three run advantage after five.
From there, Ogden's bullpen held the Brewers at bay, and the score remained 6-3 going into the bottom of the eighth. With Ashby still on the mound, he issued a one out walk to James Outman. Chris Roller then turned on an inside pitch and sent it off the scoreboard for his second homer, cutting the lead to one. Niko Hulsizer then whacked a pinch hit single to center, and Daniel Robinson followed with a single to left.
That set up Jacob Amaya, who took an outside fastball and parked it in the right center field gap for a triple, scoring both easily to give Ogden their first lead of the night. The infield came in for Ronny Brito, who singled up the gut, plating the Raptors an insurance run. Hunter Speer (W, 1-0) pitched the eighth and the ninth, earning the win while facing just one over the minimum.
The Brewers look to even the series tomorrow as Max Lazar takes the hill, opposed by Joel Inoa. First pitch is at 4:00, with the pregame show hitting the airwaves of helenabrewers.net at 3:45. Your Helena Brewers return home on Wednesday, July 18th for a three game series against the Idaho Falls Chukars. You can get your tickets now by visiting the ticketing page of helenabrewers.net.
