Range Riders pound Voyagers 11-4

GREAT FALLS — Benjamin Fitzgerald and Gabe Howell got the Glacier Range Riders offense going early in Wednesday’s 11-4 Pioneer League win at Great Falls.

With solo home runs in the seventh and eighth innings, they put a nice capper on things as well.

Fitzgerald’s home run in the seventh gave him three runs batted in and put Glacier up 7-1; Howell’s homer gave him three RBIs as well, and made it 9-3 in the eighth.

Glacier banged out 16 hits to back the pitching of Jonathan Pintaro (1-0) and three relievers. Pintaro went 5 2-3 innings, allowing five hits, two walks and one run. He struck out four Voyagers.

It was Fitzgerald, the designated hitter, that got the Range Riders on the board with a 2-run single in the second inning. In the fourth, Howell sparked a four-run outburst with a 2-RBI double and the Range Riders (1-1) went up 7-0.

After Howell’s homer Kingston Liniak hit an RBI single to drive in Jackson Raper, who’d doubled, in the eighth. In the ninth Ryan Cash added an RBI groundout that scored Keenan O’Brien, who’d hit a leadoff single.

The seven-game series continues through the weekend.

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Great Falls 000 001 210 - 4 11 1

Jonathan Pintaro, Ryan Cloude (6), Luke Dawson (8), Joseph Kinsky and O’Brien, Austin Bates (7). Shane Gustafson, Anthony Becerra-Lopez (5), Brett Lorah (7) and Beau Dorman, Jaylyn Williams. WP — PIntaro (1-0). LP — Gustafson (0-1).

GLACIER RANGE RIDERS — Gabe Howell 2-6, Crews Taylor 2-4, Dean Miller 1-5, Jackson Raper 2-5, Kingston Liniak 2-5, Ben McConnell 2-5, Keenan O’Brien 1-3, Benjamin Fitzgerald 3-4, Ryan Cash 0-4.

GREAT FALLS VOYAGERS — Jake Malec 2-4, Riley Jepson 0-4, Collin Runge 0-1, Matthew Richardson 1-3, Ryan McCarthy 2-5, Christian Coipel 1-5, Cristopher De Guzeman 2-4, Cal Bocchino 1-4, Dorman 1-2, Williams 1-1, Charlie Hesse 0-4.

2B — Howell, Raper, Malec, McCarthy, Dorman. HR — Howell, Fitzgerald. RBIs — Fitzgerald 3, Howell 3, Cash 2, Miller, Liniak, Taylor, Coipel, De Guzman, Dorman.