Range Riders rout Missoula 17-3, advance to PBL finals

MISSOULA — The Range Riders are moving on.

Ryan McCarthy homered and drove in five runs Friday, and the Glacier Range Riders ousted the Missoula PaddleHeads from the Pioneer League playoffs with a 17-3 win at Ogren-Allegiance Field. 

Glacier now heads to the PBL championship, a best-of-5 series against the Yolo High Wheelers of Davis, California. Yolo beat the Oakland Ballers 6-4 Friday to win their first-round series 2-1. 

The championship series will begin Tuesday night with Game 1 at Glacier Bank Park, with Game 2 Wednesday. The series then moves to Dobbins Stadium on the UC Davis campus. 

The Range Riders swept their first-round series 2-0, after the PaddleHeads won 16 of their 24 regular-season matchups. McCarthy hit a three-run home run to spark a four-run second inning, putting Glacier up 5-0, and the hits kept coming: McCarthy had an RBI double to start a four-run fourth inning; Ben Fitzgerald and Andy Atwood hit two-run doubles in a five-run ninth. 

Chad Castillo, who drove in four runs, hit a two-run home run to make it 9-0 in the fourth inning. The gap grew to 12-0 in the eighth on RBI grounders from McCarthy, Castillo and Kingston Liniak. Liniak also had an RBI single in the ninth and Glacier combined 17 hits with seven walks issued by seven Missoula pitchers. 

This was more than enough offense for starting pitcher Cooper Benson — he threw six shutout innings, allowing two hits and two walks with six strikeouts — and three relievers.  

Gabe Howell had three hits and scored four times for the Range Riders; McCarthy and Freddy Guilamo each scored three times. 

Missoula, which won 62 regular-season games compared to 48 for Glacier, got a two-run homer from Kamron Willman and a solo shot from Alec Sanchez. 

Glacier    140    400    035    -    17    17    0 

Missoula    000    000    021    -    3    5    1 

Cooper Benson, Nick Zegna (7), Aidan McEvoy (8), Ryan Supple (9) and Freddy Guilamo. Dawson Day, Jestin Jones (2), Noah McBride (4), Jimmy Loper (6), Arman Sabouri (7), Ethan Swanson (7), Mark Timmins (9) and Carlos Perez. 

GLACIER RANGE RIDERS — Gabe Howell 3-4, Drew Simms 1-1, Ryan McCarthy 2-6, Christian Kirtley 2-3, Chad Castillo 3-5, Kingston Liniak 3-6, Ben Fitzgerald 1-5, Andy Atwood 1-5, Ty Penner 0-5, Freddy Guilamo 1-3. 

MISSOULA PADDLEHEADS — Patrick Chung 0-4, Roberto Pena 0-3, Josh Eliver 0-1, Alec Sanchez 1-4, Adam Fogel 1-3, Mike Rosario 1-4, Carlos Perez 0-4, Colin Gordon 1-3, Cameron Thompson 0-2, Kamron Willman 1-3. 

2B — Howell, McCarthy, Castillo 2, Liniak, Fitzgearld, Atwood. HR — McCarthy, Castillo, Sanchez, Willman. RBIs — McCarthy 5, Castillo 4, Liniak 2, Fitzgerald 2, Atwood 2, Kirtley, Willman 2, Sanchez.