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Ogden can’t find big hit, Great Falls edges Raptors 5-4 to finish series Sunday

By BRETT HEIN - Standard-Examiner | Aug 11, 2024

The Raptors took their six-game set at Great Falls this week but fell just short of their first 5-1 series victory of the season after the Voyagers edged Ogden 5-4 on Sunday afternoon.

Trailing 5-2 in late innings, Ogden (33-39, 11-13 second half) had chances to score but couldn’t find the big hit.

In the seventh, the Raptors had runners on first and third with one out; the inning ended on two flyouts, with Connor Bagnieski scoring on one of them, to make it 5-3.

Ogden led off the eighth with Nick Ultsch taking a hit by pitch and Drew Brutcher drawing a walk to get the tying run aboard with no outs. A sacrifice bunt, a groundout and a flyout ended the threat, with Pearce Howard’s groundout scoring Ultsch to make it 5-4.

In the ninth, Great Falls (24-48, 8-16) reliever Caleb Turner needed 16 pitches to retire Ogden in order and end the game.

Rafael Vazquez took the loss for the Raptors, allowing three runs on four hits in two innings. Ryan Major led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on a wild pitch, and a walk and two more hits put the Voyagers up 3-0 after one frame.

Major doubled and tripled for Great Falls; the Voyagers outhit Ogden 12-7 and tallied four extra-base hits to the Raptors’ zero.

Brutcher hit a two-RBI single in the top of the fourth to briefly get the Raptors to within 3-2, but the Voyagers added a run in the bottom half against Nico Saltaformaggio to keep a cushion.

Brutcher led Ogden as the team’s only multi-hit batter of the game, going 2 for 3 with two RBIs.

For Great Falls, Oscar Serratos Jr. was one of five Voyagers with two hits; he added three stolen bases.

Ogden travels Monday and begins a six-game series Tuesday at Billings (32-39, 10-13).