Ogden Raptors: Van Sickle gets call-up; Parker youngest PBL manager to 50 wins
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- Ogden Raptors pitcher Bryson Van Sickle rears back to throw a pitch on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Ogden Raptors manager Evan Parker writes in the dugout on May 29, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
It always seemed a bit preposterous that a Pac-12 Conference pitcher of the year went undrafted but such is the new, smaller, fewer-opportunities world of affiliated major and minor league baseball.
So, as he had for the first three Tuesdays this season, left-hander Bryson Van Sickle arrived at Lindquist Field preparing to start on the mound for the independent Ogden Raptors to open a six-game homestand.
The native of Eagle Mountain, Utah, instead got a meeting with Raptors manager Evan Parker.
“For tonight, and for the foreseeable future, you’re not going to throw, and you’re not going to throw here,” Parker says to Van Sickle in a video posted by the team. “That’s because you’re going to be part of the Colorado Rockies organization.”
Handshakes, hugs and backslaps followed.
“I’ll never forget the day that I got called in and the Brewers wanted to pick me up,” Parker said. “You deserve it man, you’re ready to go. And I told you, I said this was going to happen. I said you’ve got to show up here and prove that you belong, and you did it.
“You’re not throwing tonight, obviously,” Parker said, to which an eye-wiping Van Sickle said, “I wanted to.”
The University of Utah alum threw 15 2/3 innings in three starts with Ogden, not picking up any decisions while posting an ERA of 6.32. His best start was his first, allowing one earned run on four hits in a five-inning, four-strikeout outing in Oakland.
As a senior with the Utes in 2024, he led the Pac-12 in ERA at 2.67, posting a 5-1 record in 15 starts while striking out 69 and walking 21.
Based on previous Pioneer League contract purchases in recent years, Van Sickle, 24, seems likely to first land at a single-A Rockies affiliate, either single-A Fresno or high-A Spokane.
OGDEN 21, GREAT FALLS 1
Van Sickle’s absence may be felt sometime, but it wasn’t Tuesday as the Raptors walloped last-place Great Falls 21-1 to open a three-game set against the visiting Voyagers in front of 3,372 fans at Lindquist Field.
The win runs Parker’s managing record to 50-65, making the Bonneville High alum the youngest manager in the 86-year history of the Pioneer League to hit the 50-win mark, the team says.
It improves Ogden to 9-10 this season while Great Falls is now 2-17.
Ogden first baseman Dylan Wilkinson led the Raptors at the plate with six RBIs and he managed that in the first two innings. Wilkinson’s grand slam to right field capped a seven-run first inning for the home team and his two-run double to the right-center gap gave Ogden a 10-0 lead through two innings.
Another left-hander in Chase Chatman got the ball in Van Sickle’s stead and threw the best start of his rookie season, allowing one run on six hits over six innings, striking out five and walking three.
Ogden, meanwhile, kept hitting, with Chris Sargent hitting a three-run homer in the third for a 13-1 lead, Kyler Stancato going yard to right-center for three RBIs and an 18-1 lead, and Cole Jordan doubling home two in the seventh inning to cap the game’s scoring.
Sargent drove in four and Jordan three as the Raptors outhit Great Falls 20-7, totaling seven hits in extra-basers alone.
Ogden relievers Shawn Triplett and Cameron Edmondson each struck out the side in the seventh and eighth. Jestin Jones also faced the minimum in the ninth after allowing the Voyagers’ final hit but ended the game on a 6-4-3 ground ball double play.
