OGDEN — Monday’s game between the Billings Mustangs and Ogden Raptors was, at 2 hours and 14 minutes, the fastest game played in the Pioneer League this season.

Tuesday’s game started briskly but, by the end, it was easy to forget Billings once led 3-1 after the Raptors started hitting the cover off the ball.

Ogden small-balled Billings to pieces to build an 11-3 lead, then smashed three homers to cap the fifth inning on the way to a 21-6 victory at Lindquist Field.

The Mustangs (45-39, 20-18) pieced hits together for one run in each of the first three, building a 3-1 lead against Raptors (48-38, 19-19) starter Ronny Orta.

Ogden’s third inning then looked like this: Dakota Conners single, Josh Broughton single, Pat Adams sacrifice bunt, Brian Dansereau single, Sonny Ulliana single. That gave the Raptors a 5-3 lead.

Former Raptors pitcher Jack Cunningham took the mound in the fourth for Billings and his return to Lindquist Field was not one he’d like to remember. Three singles to lead off the inning then produced a run when Adams drew a bases-loaded walk, and another run when Jesus Valdez drove in his 100th RBI of the season with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-3.

Valdez is one of two players in the league (Missoula’s Jayson Newman) with 100 or more RBIs this season.

It got worse for Cunningham in the fifth. After a one-out walk, Logan Williams singled, Conners singled, Broughton doubled on the paint down the left-field line, and Adams singled in two to make it 11-3.

Byron Smith took over for Cunningham and Dansereau skied a three-run homer to left-center. Reese Alexiades followed with a 410-foot solo homer to straightaway center, measured at 103 mph off his bat, for a 15-3 lead. Freddy Achecar finished the inning with a solo shot pulled down the right-field line to make it 16-3.

Orta got the win, allowing three runs on six hits, striking out six and walking three in five innings.

Billings put position player Jordan Hovey on the mound in the eighth and Ogden predictably piled up more runs, highlighted by Alexiades’ second three-run homer of the night, a nearly identical dinger to center measured at 412 feet, for the final tally.

Broughton totaled four hits and doubled twice. Valdez doubled twice. Alexiades drove in his six runs and Dansereau had five RBIs. Ogden totaled 22 hits.

The two teams continue the series at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

TUESDAY SCORES

Ogden 21, Billings 6

Rocky Mountain 13, Northern Colorado 2

Northern Colorado 8, Rocky Mountain 7

Boise 16, Grand Junction 2

Missoula 9, Glacier 4

Great Falls 17, Idaho Falls 7

PIONEER LEAGUE STANDINGS

Second Half – 10 games left

NORTH DIVISION

*Missoula 26-12 (61-24 overall)

Billings 20-18 (45-39)

Idaho Falls 18-19 (45-40)

Glacier 18-19 (35-49)

Great Falls 16-20 (43-40)

SOUTH DIVISION

Grand Junction 27-10 (53-32)

Rocky Mountain 19-18 (34-49)

*Ogden 19-19 (48-38)

Northern Colorado 14-24 (31-52)

Boise 10-27 (27-58)

*-indicates 1st-half champion

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