Great Falls ties Helena with 1-run win vs. Owlz

OREM — The night began with Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham throwing out the honorary first pitch. It ended with a rousing Pioneer Day fireworks show.

In between, the Orem Owlz and Great Falls White Sox provided the sellout crowd of 5,123 with an entertaining show of their own Tuesday night at Brent Brown Ballpark.

Though the Owlz never led in the game, they rallied several times before falling to the White Sox 6-5.

While Orem tried to send its fans home happy on Pioneer Day, Great Falls (23-11) had other ideas. The White Sox are battling for a Pioneer League North Division first-half championship, after all. Entering the contest, Great Falls had won seven of its previous 10 games, and with Tuesday's win, the White Sox jumped into a first-place tie with Helena, which lost to the worst team in the league, Casper (9-25), Tuesday night.

The Owlz (14-20) only wish they were playing for a first-half title. Orem entered Tuesday's contest having dropped eight of its last 10 games and is mired in the middle of the South Division standings — well behind first-place Idaho Falls, which has already clinched the first-half South Division crown.

Great Falls got the scoring started in the second inning on a two-run RBI by Dale Mollenhauer, who later scored to give the White Sox an early 3-0 lead.

Doubles by Josh Morgan and Joe Persichina in the third lifted Great Falls to a 5-0 advantage.

Orem began its comeback in its half of the third thanks to four consecutive singles. An RBI infield base hit by Gordie Gronkowski, whose average is above .400 for the season, put the Owlz on the scoreboard. Later in the frame, Donato Giovanatto recorded an RBI on a groundout, then Jerry Gonzalez's single scored former Ute Jay Brossman to make the score 5-3.

In the fifth, Julio Perez cut the deficit to 5-4 when he crushed a solo home run to straightaway center field that cleared the 16-foot wall. While Great Falls answered in the sixth on Christian Marrero's RBI single, Orem struck again in the bottom of that frame when Jeremy Moore scored an another Brossman single.

But in the late innings, the Owlz squandered opportunities to pull out a victory. In the seventh, Giovanatto belted a leadoff single up the middle, only to be left stranded at third. In the eighth, Brossman and Grokowski reached on a single and a walk, respectively, but Giovanatto struck out to end the inning.

And to open the ninth, Perez singled Zand Gonzalez drew a walk. But that was followed by Anel De Los Santos striking out and Moore grounding into a game-ending double play.

The Owlz and White Sox close out their series tonight at 7.

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com