For the third straight night in Ogden, the Missoula Paddleheads jumped to a lead and cruised to a win over the Ogden Raptors, this time an 11-8 victory Friday night.

Missoula beat up Ogden starer Tate Budnick for seven runs in the three innings, the final push coming in the fourth inning in which Budnick recorded no outs before being relieved.

Troy Whitty held the Paddleheads to one run in two innings, but Missoula finished things off when Jared Akins hit a three-run homer off Mark Mixon in the seventh inning for an 11-3 lead.

The Raptors kept it a game in the bottom of the seventh with a four-run inning when Andy Armstrong doubled, Troy Dixon doubled him in, Dom Abbadessa singled in Dixon, and a Reese Alexiades single pushed across a pair.

Alexiades and Jakob Goldfarb were in the middle of most of Ogden’s runs, as they did in the ninth to make it 11-8. Goldfarb doubled with two outs and scored on an Alexiades single.

Goldfarb finished 4 for 5 with four runs scored. Alexiades hit 3 for 5 with three RBIs.

Dylan Pearce and Kida De La Cruz, the latter pitching against his former team, held Missoula to one hit and zero runs in the final 2 2/3 innings, but Ogden couldn’t rally offensively.

The two teams play the fourth game of the series at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

FRIDAY SCORES

Missoula 11, Ogden 8

Rocky Mountain 6, Grand Junction 4

Boise 12, Idaho Falls 5

Billings 10, Great Falls 7

UPDATED STANDINGS

Second Half – 12 games left

NORTH

*Missoula 20-16 … 55-29

Billings 20-16 … 38-46

Idaho Falls 19-18 … 53-32

Great Falls 17-19 … 36-48

SOUTH

Boise 22-15 … 42-43

Grand Junction 18-17 … 44-38

*Ogden 17-19 … 46-38

Rocky Mountain 11-24 … 21-61

* — denotes 1st-half champion

Newsletter