Nunez, Voyagers sweep into Finals

Just a year ago, writing Amado Nunez's name on the lineup card wasn't much of a consideration for Great Falls manager Tim Esmay. Flash forward and the White Sox prospect is a middle-of-the-order catalyst for the Voyagers, who are heading back to the Pioneer League Championship Series. 
Nunez homered, drove in three runs and fell a triple shy of the cycle as Great Falls beat Missoula, 9-2, sweeping the best-of-3 semifinal series on Saturday at Centene Stadium at Legion Park. It's the second straight trip to the Finals for the Voyagers. 

Gameday box score
"I grabbed him the other day and I just told him how proud I was of him and what a difference a year makes in the growth process," Esmay said. "So, here he is hitting 3-4-5 hole for us, being a mainstay and becoming the batting champ. Everything that he's accomplished this year has been a credit to him and the adjustments that he's made from a year ago in this league." 
Nunez batted .357/.394/.568 with six homers in 60 regular-season games for the Voyagers. He led the league in batting and ranked sixth in OPS, a year after putting up a .183/.247/.246 slash line. 
Esmay credits hitting coach Eric Richardson for sticking with Nunez and expediting his development.  
"It's just another year of maturity and development," the manager said.
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The native of the Dominican Republic laced an RBI single to center field in the second inning, then bounced another run-scoring single to center in the third. He capped his three-hit night with a solo homer to left-center on an 0-1 pitch in the seventh. 
The Voyagers won the first-half North Division title with a 22-16 record but struggled in the second half, finishing last in the division at 12-25. They also dropped their last four games, all against the Mustangs, to end the regular season. 
Esmay wasn't sure how his team would respond in the playoffs, but he was impressed after Saturday night's performance.
"It was just a grind," he said of the homestretch. "I'm just really proud of these guys. Baseball's a funny game. You get something going at the right time and you can ride the wave, and we kind of got that going.
"I'll tell you what, the credit to these guys in the clubhouse is they never got down. They never let the emotion of the game get the best of them. They understood that they needed to come every day and work and get better. You're not always going to be rewarded for hard work, but these guys got better and at the right time." 
The sweep is extra sweet for the Voyagers, not only because they will have Sunday off with the South Division finals pushed to a decisive Game 3 but because the day is free to watch the opening weekend of NFL football. 

"I think that was the incentive, that they could have tomorrow off so they could watch NFL Football," Esmay said. "They earned it." 
Billings jumped out to an early lead, with Dylan Harris hammering a solo shot to left off Great Falls starter Konnor Pilkington and Miguel Hernandez driving an RBI single to right in the second. But it didn't last long, as the Voyagers piled up nine unanswered runs. 
Davis Martin (1-0) earned the win, striking out four over four innigns of hitless relief.
Billings' Ricky Salinas (0-1) surrendered four runs on six hits over 2 1/3 frames. 

In other Pioneer League playoff action:

Raptors 7, Rockies 5
James Outman clubbed two homers and drove in four runs as Ogden squared the other semifinal series at one win apiece at Lindquist Field. Pioneer League MVP Coco Montes went 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI for Grand Junction. The teams will play the winner-take-all game on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET in Ogden. Gameday box score