Range Riders run win streak to 8
The red tops looked good on the Glacier Range Riders Friday. So do eight straight wins.
Matt Clayton and Gabe Howell homered, Dean Miller had four hits and the Range Riders swamped Idaho Falls 12-7 at Glacier Bank Park.
They are 30-15 overall, and if they can’t catch the Missoula Paddleheads in the first half of the Pioneer League season, they look more and more like a playoff shoo-in.
“We’ve got a good team,” Stu Pedersen said Friday, and not for the first time. “And it’s only going to get better.”
There were plenty of heroes in the game: By the time Kingston Liniak beat out a swinging bunt for an infield single in the sixth inning, every Range Rider had a hit. By the end of that frame they owned a 12-2 lead.
At one point the Chukars (16-31) had closed a 3-0 lead to 3-2 when Glacier pitcher Jonathan Clark wobbled in the fourth. Helping blunt the charge was Glacier second baseman Mason Dinesen, who tracked down a grounder for a key second out.
In the bottom of the frame he picked out a fastball and pulled it into the left field corner for an RBI double that pushed Glacier’s lead back to three, at 5-2.
He added another RBI double to the same spot in that six-run sixth inning (slider this time).
“Pre-game, we got in the cage, me and Stu,” Dinesen said. “We just worked on barrelling up the ball, and taking that mindset into the game. I have a tendency to move very quickly – I just tried to slow the game down and barrel up the baseball.
“And it worked out,” he added, smiling. “Twice. I’ll take it.”
“He’s on time with the fastballs and then they’re hanging breaking balls and he’s smacking them,” said Clayton, who hit his sixth homer, a two-run shot, in the second inning. “As he should. “
Then, after the Chukars got a triple from Mark Herron. Jr. and a double from Eduardo Acosta to close the gap to 12-5 in the eighth, Dinesen made a diving stop on a hard-hit grounder by Robert Paller.
He turned an RBI single into an out, and it seemed more important after Idaho Falls catcher Anthony Frechette hit a two-run homer in the ninth.
“I’m a big fan of the infield and playing hard,” Dinesen, who came into the Pioneer League as a Billings Mustangs’ shortstop last season. “It’s new for me on that side of the infield, but I’m getting used to it.”
Howell hit his team-leading ninth home run, a two-run shot, in that big sixth inning — one of five straight Glacier hits with two out.
Clark got the win, allowing just one hit along with six walks in five innings. He also hit two batters, and struck out two. The normally stingy bullpen got touched up, though just two of the Chukars’ runs were earned.
The Range Riders are 5-0 against the Chukars — they’re 28-8 against teams not named Missoula — including an 8-6 victory Thursday. They play them Saturday at 7:05 p.m. ahead of a two-day break in the schedule.
Chukars 000 200 122 - 7 6 2
Riders 120 216 00x - 12 15 4
Victor Rodriguez, Jack Zigan (5), Jacob Bogacz (6), Brian Williams (8) and Anthony Frenchette. Jonathan Clark, Connor Housley (6), John Natoli (7), Joseph Kinsky (8), Michael YaSenka (9) and Matt Clayton. WP — Clark (2-1). LP — Rodriguez (1-1).
IDAHO FALLS CHUKARS — Mark Herron Jr 1-3, Eduardo Acosta 1-3, Robert Paller 0-3, Michael Kohn 0-5, Trevor Halsema 1-4, Zach May 1-5, Anthony Frechete 1-2, Alex Stinnett 0-4, Brandon Bohning 1-5.
GLACIER RANGE RIDERS — Gabe Howell 1-4, Jackson Raper 1-5, Dean Miller 4-4, Kingston Liniak 1-5, Crews Taylor 2-3, Matt Clayton 2-4, Christian Kirtley 1-4, Sam Linscott 1-5, Ben McConnell 0-0, Mason Dinesen 2-4.\
2B — Acosta, May, Dinesen 2, Miller. 3B — Herron Jr. HR — Frechette (1), Howell (9), Clayton (6). RBIs — Frechette 2, Herron Jr., Acosta, Paller, May, Clayton 3, Howell 2, Miller 2, Dinsen 2, Kirtley, Linscott.
Thursday
Range Riders 8, Chukars 6
Idaho Falls made up a 6-1 deficit with five runs in the fifth, but the Range Riders’ bullpen — Noah Barros, Luke Dawson, Roy Robles and Justin Coleman — shut things down after Matt Kohn’s tying two-run homer.
Dinesen got Glacier back in front with a two-out RBI single that scored Liniak.
In the eighth inning Ben McConnell hit a solo homer to left, his first of the season, for the game’s final run.
Barros, formerly a starting pitcher for the Range Riders, went 2 2-3 innings and got the win. Six of his eight outs came via strikeout. Dawson, Robles and Coleman each struck out two Chukars, and Coleman got his team-leading fourth save.
Chukars 100 500 000 - 6 9 2
Riders 204 010 01x - 8 11 0
Dusty Baird, Joe Slocum (5) and Hudson. Jonathan Pintaro, Noah Barro0s (4), Luke Dawson (8), Justin Coleman (9) and Kirtley. WP — Barros (4-1). LP — Slocum (1-2).
CHUKARS — Acosta 1-5, Paller 1-4, Hudson 1-5, Kohn 2-4, Cullen 1-5, Herron 0-2, Halsema 1-4, May 1-4, Bohning 1-3.
RANGE RIDERS — Howell 0-5, Raper 1-5, Miller 2-4, Fitzgerald 0-3, Liniak 3-4,Lucky 0-2, Kirtley 1-4, Dinesen 2-3, McConnell 2-4.
2B — Paller, Hudson, Liniak, Dinesen, McConnell. HR — Kohn (3), Kirtley (3), McConnell (1). RBIs — Kohn 2, Hudson 2, Cullen, Kirtley 3, Liniak 2, McConnell 2, Dinesen.