Glacier Range Riders win home opener after trailing by 9

Home Opener No. 2 was a lot warmer for the Glacier Range Riders, the outcome a lot more entertaining — and Crews Taylor was on the right side of it both times.

Eleven months after scoring the first run in Glacier Bank Park history for the Billings Mustangs, Taylor’s broken-bat, bases-loaded grounder scored pinch-runner Mason Dinesen with the winning run Tuesday, in Glacier’s 13-12 win over Billings.

“It was pretty cool,” Taylor said. “Full circle, really.”

It was an epic comeback: The Range Riders (3-2) trailed 8-0 and 12-3, and grinded their way back into the Pioneer League game. They pushed across two runs in the fifth inning (Ryan Cash and Gabe Howell both tripled and scored), one in the sixth (Ben Fitzgerald’s third homer of the season) and four each in the seventh and eighth.

It helped that Billings starter Karan Patel, who was very tough through the first four innings, left after giving up three runs in the fifth.

“He had a good night,” Taylor said of Patel, who struck out nine. “He was working that fastball with his curveball really well together. He was working off his fastball, elevating it, and then he’d break that curve off.

“We finally got to him, they took him out, and we just started hitting. The whole team, everybody. We had to, to claw our way back.”

Three Mustang relievers proceeded to give as many hits (eight) as get outs. Dinesen, another former Mustang, scored with one out in the ninth.

Kingston Liniak, who earlier made two diving catches in short center field, had a two-run single to cap the seventh, cutting the gap to 12-8; his RBI single in the eighth scored Dean Miller knotted up the score.

Matt Clayton, who came in for Keenan O’Brien in the top of the first when O’Brien took a foul off his throwing hand — Clayton is the fourth rostered catcher this season, already — led off the ninth with a single.

Cash bunted him over, but beat out the play for a single; Ben McConnell then bunted Dinesen and Cash over to second and third.

After Gabe Howell was intentionally walked, Taylor squibbed his grounder past the mound on the second base side and Dinesen scored ahead of the throw.

That was that. John Natoli, who pitched a scoreless ninth, picked up the win.

A sizable crowd saw the Mustangs (3-4) get the bats going early. After an error helped them score three times in the first, they pushed across five runs in the third. Casey Harford hit a 3-run homer for a 7-0 lead, and Connor Denning followed with a solo shot for Billings.

After Glacier closed to 8-3, Mitch Morales hit a 3-run homer for Billings in the sixth for the 12-4 lead.

From there it was all Glacier. Ryan Cloude worked around four hits to keep Billings scoreless in the seventh and eighth, and the Range Riders rallied.

They were helped when the Mustangs shortstop mishandled a bases-loaded grounder in the seventh, letting in a run; Cash and Miller both walked and scored in the eighth.

Last June Billings won the first-ever game at Flathead Field 9-4 in a rainy game shortened to six innings.

It should be mentioned that Jackson Raper, who had two hits and two RBIs Tuesday, hit the stadium’s first home run that night. As a Mustang. That’s how Taylor scored that first run. Now both are Range Riders.

“I was sad to see the coaching staff in Billings leave,” Taylor, who hit .280 with 15 home runs in 2022, said. “They were bringing in all new guys, and I wasn’t sure who it was going to be. I knew who it was going to be here, and knew the facility.

“And you just can’t beat it, coming here. They take care of us; we’re spoiled. Love it. It’s easy to play here.”

The teams battle two more times before the Rocky Mountain Vibes come to Kalispell Friday for three games. Wednesday’s game time is 7:05 p.m.