Raptors cough up 10-2 lead, lose third straight to Billings
The Ogden Raptors have lost nine of their last 11 games, giving up an early 10-2 lead over the Billings Mustangs on the way to a 13-11 loss Thursday night at Lindquist Field.
Rafi Vazquez got his first start as a Raptor and, even after giving up a pair of solo homers in the sixth inning, got the ball to his bullpen with a 10-5 lead.
After Taylor Lomack singled in two off Raptors reliever Brandon McCabe in the eighth, John Michael Faile hit a grand slam to get Billings (44-43, 25-14) a 12-10 lead.
Dane Tofteland doubled in a run in the bottom of the eighth to make it 13-11 but that’s all Ogden (45-42, 14-25) would get. Cam Phelts led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to get the tying run to the plate but Alexiades, Logan Williams and Nick Ultsch each struck out swinging to end the game.
Jonathan Soto led Ogden at the plate by hitting 3 for 4.
Reese Alexiades tripled in the run in the first inning and the game was tied 2-2 through two innings.
Alexiades helped get things going in the third, an inning in which Soto and Rafael Narea doubled in runs and Josh Broughton drove in Narea to make it 8-2.
That got to 10-2 in the fourth when Dakota Conners doubled in a run and scored on a Soto single.
Ogden and Billings continue the series Friday through Sunday at Lindquist Field.