Raptors rocked on either side of delay, lose to Billings to open series
OGDEN — The Ogden Raptors got rocked on either side of an hour-plus lightning delay and fell 23-4 to open a six-game home series against the Billings Mustangs on Tuesday night at Lindquist Field.
Billings hit four home runs and scored three runs via wild pitch, three via passed ball and another on a hit-by-pitch. Raptors pitchers issued 10 walks through seven innings before handing the ball to usual catcher Logan Williams for the final two frames.
Ogden (45-40, 14-23) took a 2-0 lead to open the game with a Juan Teixeira RBI double to score Reese Alexiades and a run when Williams beat out a double-play ball to score Jonathan Soto.
But Billings (42-43, 23-14) got going in the second inning against Ogden starter Jackson Miller.
From the nine-spot, lefty-hitting shortstop Blake Evans hit a screaming liner over Raptor Ridge for a two-run homer. Outfielder Taylor Lomack followed two batters later by crushing a two-run dinger to left, missing clearing the scoreboard by one foot, if that.
That put the visitors up 6-2 and it was elementary from there as Ogden totaled just four hits through the first six innings.
The game paused for lightning in the area, which also welcomed a brief downpour, for more than one hour in the middle of the fifth with the score already 12-2.
After the restart, the Mustangs tacked on a bunch of runs on wild pitches or passed balls to make it 19-2.
Lomack hit a three-run homer off Williams in the eighth to make it 22-2 before Ogden scored a pair in the bottom half on a Teixeira sacrifice fly to score Josh Broughton and a Coleton Horner double to score Soto.
The two teams play again Wednesday through Sunday.