Solos and Extras Help Raptors To Record Win

Before the season, many had wondered what the new extra innings experience would look like, with a runner placed on second base to start each extra frame.
With nearly half of the 2018 Pioneer League campaign completed, the Ogden Raptors finally have first-hand experience.
On the backs of four solo home runs throughout the game, Ogden ended the ninth inning tied with Helena. In the tenth, the visitors scored three times to secure a 7-5 victory on the penultimate day of the first half.
With the win, the Raptors improved to 25-12 on the season - a franchise-best win total for a single half of play. Three times previously, in the first half of 2009 and second halves of 2015 and 2017, Ogden finished with a 24-14 record.
In the early going Monday night, it seemed the visitors might suffer a big loss. The host Brewers put their leadoff man on second with no outs in the first, but he was thrown out on a close play at home. In the second, their first four batters reached base to plate a run, and with two outs and infield single scored another.
Despite those scares, Kevin Malisheski was able to keep his team in the ballgame. The Raptors answered the two runs in the second with a Chris Roller solo home run in the third, and after a Brewers runner scored thanks to two errors in the fourth, Niko Hulsizer laced a shot over the left-field fence for a bases-empty blast in the fifth.
With Ogden trailing, 3-2, into the sixth, left-handed hitters Drew Avans and Dillon Paulson notched back-to-back solo homers against a hard-throwing reliever to tie the game and give the Raptors the lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, however, Helena put runners at first and second with two out. A full-count pitch skipped away from the plate, and Yeison Coca, who was running on the play, dove across the plate just ahead of the throw to tie the game.
It was still tied into the bottom of the ninth, when a pair of two-out walks put the potential winning run in scoring position, but Luis Pasen sent the game to extra innings by inducing a groundout.
According to new rules for the minor leagues in 2018, teams start each extra inning with their last batter from the previous inning at second base. While it was Helena's third time in the situation, the Raptors were newcomers.
Chris Roller started on second, and he promptly went to third when Jacob Amaya singled through the left side. Avans grounded out on the first pitch to score Roller, and Paulson poked a hit to left to bring in Amaya before hustling to second as the throw came in high. With two out, Paulson was plated by a Ronny Brito single for a 7-4 Ogden lead.
Pasen quickly retired two Helena batters in the home half of the 10^th, but three straight singles scored the runner who started on second and put the tying and winning runs on base. Amaya fielded a sharp grounder at shortstop and flipped to second base to end the game, however.
Other than the two errors on one play to score a run in the fourth, the Raptors were excellent defensively. James Outman made diving catches in the fourth and sixth, Miguel Vargas - typically a third baseman but getting experience at second - picked up a tapper over the mound and flipped in time to first in the eighth, Brito had a diving catch of a line drive to third base in the ninth and Pasen barehanded a ball off the third-base side of the mound before firing a laser to first for the second out of the 10^th.
The finale of the four-game series, and potentially of the long-running rivalry between Ogden and Helena, is scheduled for 7:05 Tuesday night. After 2018, the Brewers are moving to Colorado Springs, CO, and Tuesday is the final regular season game between the Raptors and Brewers.