From Deseret News archives:
Brewers outslug rival Raptors
With Hall of Fame slugger Harmon Killebrew in attendance, the teams combined to hit seven home runs — five by the Raptors and two by the Brewers. Helena led big early and held off a big rally by Ogden by scoring in five consecutive innings.
After falling behind 8-0, the Raptors scored six times behind four home runs in the third inning. Rick Taloa started the rally with a two-run home run. Justin Crist followed three batters later with a solo shot — his first home run of the season. After David Sutherland singled, Russ Mitchell sent the ball just over the left field fence for the third homer of the inning. Then the next batter, Juan Apodaca, hit another home run to right field to make the score 8-6.
The Brewers would answer the rally with a run in the fourth inning on an RBI double from Angel Salome, making the score 9-6. But the Raptors would come right back with a run in the bottom half when James McDonald led off the inning with a triple and scored on a groundout by Juan Rivera to make the score 9-7.
Helena started to run away in the fifth inning when Charlie Fermaint hit a three-run home run to give the Brewers a 12-7 lead. Helena increased its lead to six in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Crew which scored Brad Willcott, making the score 13-7.
In the bottom half of that inning, James McDonald would score again when Crew, the Brewer shortstop would throw a Rivera ground ball way to the right field side of first base and put the Raptors back within five, 13-8.
But the Brewers would score yet another run in the top of the seventh on a double steal by Brendan Katin and Kenny Holmberg. With Holmberg at first and Katin at third, Holmberg would go for second but stopped 10 feet short in order to distract the Raptors and allow Katin to reach home. But the catcher Apodaca's throw would skip into center field and Katin was able to walk to the plate and make the score 14-8.
Russ Mitchell gave Ogden hope again in the bottom of the seventh with his second home run, another two-run shot to left field, which cut the Raptor deficit to 14-10. But that ended the Raptors' scoring.
Helena jumped out early with a four-run first inning. Angel Salome started the scoring with an RBI single which was followed two batters later with a three-run home run by Kenny Holmberg.
The Brewers scored four more runs in the third inning with a two-run single by Mike Bell and a two-run triple by Ned Yost IV.
Raptor pitchers walked 12 Brewer batters which resulted in an additional eight runs for Helena.
The Brewers finished with only 11 hits to the Raptors' 12.
Ogden's loss combined with Orem's 4-3 win over Missoula cuts the Raptors' lead in the Pioneer League South Division to one game with just over a week to play before the first half of the season ends. The division leader after the first half of the season automatically advances to the playoffs.
E-mail: bhinton@desnews.com
