Ogden Raptors take road hit as Owlz sweep Sunday doubleheader
The scores and quality of competition were much different this week than when the Ogden Raptors and Northern Colorado Owlz opened the 2024 Pioneer League season in May.
But the end result was the same after two games Sunday: the Owlz won five times in the series, the Raptors once.
The series in Windsor, Colorado, vaulted Northern Colorado (37-22, 9-3 second half) into clear second-half contention (and gives the Owlz the second-best overall season record by 2 1/2 games), while also sinking Ogden (26-34, 4-8) near the bottom of the standings, giving the Raptors a tough road to the playoffs.
In the season-opening series, the Owlz had a plus-40 run differential. This week, that number was plus-nine.
Ogden returns home to host six games against Grand Junction (21-38, 6-6) from July 30 to Aug. 4.
OWLZ 6, RAPTORS 5 (KO)
Ogden made it 59 games into the season as the only team in the Pioneer League to have not competed in a Knockout Round tiebreaker, but that ended Sunday evening when the Raptors’ historical woes in the home-run-derby decider continued and Northern Colorado won 6-5.
With the game tied 5-5 after seven regulation innings, Dave Matthews won Knockout Round for the Owlz. No other information about the Knockout was available.
Ogden led 4-1 after Chris Sargent hit an RBI double in the third and Cole Jordan an RBI double in the fourth.
Kevin Santiago hit a two-run homer in the bottom half of the fourth to help Northern Colorado tie it up.
Ogden led 5-4 and escaped the bottom of the seventh by only allowing one run after the Owlz loaded the bases with one out, but fell in Knockout anyway.
OWLZ 13, RAPTORS 8
The highest-scoring game in the series began Saturday night, was suspended due to weather with the Owlz leading 3-0 in the second inning, then resumed Sunday morning.
Northern Colorado got up 7-0 after two complete against Ogden pitchers Chris Macca on Saturday and Jon Rice on Sunday.
The Raptors cut it to as close as 9-8 in the sixth inning after homers from Chris Coipel and Cole Jordan, and a two-RBI double from Pearce Howard.
Gabriel Pacheco threw three scoreless innings for Ogden until that fell apart in the bottom of the sixth, giving up a solo homer and two singles, the latter two later scoring with Christian Griffin on the mound, to get the Owlz up 12-8.
