Range Riders take 9-game win streak into break

by Daily Inter Lake
| July 17, 2023 12:00 AM

The Glacier Range Riders closed the first half of their Pioneer League season with a flourish Saturday, hitting three home runs and overrunning the Idaho Falls Chukars 13-5.

Jackson Raper, Mason Dinesen and Christian Kirtley all homered as the Range Riders (31-16) completed a sweep of the Chukars (16-32) and ran their win streak to nine entering the midway point of the season.

The Range Riders have two days off before the Billings Mustangs come in for three games at Glacier Bank Park, beginning Tuesday.

Raper, the team leader in runs batted in with 44, drew even with Gabe Howell for the team home lead with his ninth, a solo shot. It knotted the game at 3-all in the third inning.

Glacier took the lead for good on Dean Miller’s two-run double in the fourth.

Miller had three RBIs Saturday, one coming on a bases-laded walk in the seventh; Dinesen and Raper each scored three times.

Kirtley hit his fourth homer in 17 games with the Range Riders in the fifth inning, a two-run blast that put his team ahead 8-3. Dinesen’s sixth homer, another two-run shot, put the Range Riders up 11-3 in the sixth.

Pat Miner went five innings, allowing nine hits — the teams combined for 35 — along with one walk and three runs. He fanned two.

Chukars 111 000 011 - 5 16 1

Riders 201 332 11x - 13 19 1

Dylan Gott0, J Gonzalez (5), Robby Brown (5), Jack Zigan (8) and Frechette. Pat Miner, Noah Barros (6), Luke Dawson (8), Justin Coleman (9) and Clayton. WP — Miner (3-4). LP — Gott (0-2).

IDAHO FALLS CHUKARS — Bryce Brown 2-5, Eduardo Acosta 3-5, Micahel Kohn 1-5, Trevor Halsema 2-4, Hunter Hudson 2-5, Mark Herron Jr. 2-5, Stephen Cullen 1-5, Tyler Wyatt 2-5, Anthony Frechette 1-4.

GLACIER RANGE RIDERS — Gabe Howell 3-5, Jackson Raper 3-5, Deam Miller 3-5, Kingston Liniak 2-5, Crwes Taylor 2-5, Matt Clayton 3-3, Christian Kirtley 1-5, Mason Dinesen 2-4, Ben McConnell 1-4.

2B — Brown, Kohn, Herron Jr., Wyatt, Miller, Dinesen. HR — Raper (9), Kirtley (4), Dinesen (6). RBIs — Brown, Acosta, Halsema, Hudson, Wyatt Miller 3, Liniak 2, Clayton 2, Kirtley 2, Dinesen 2, McConnell, Raper.