welcome everybody to the keeping score podcast from the daily Interlake in haggadone sports media I am Josh am this week on the Range Riders recap we will discuss the first half of the season and where the range Riders stand and can they lock up a playoff spot Gabe how are quickly filling the void left behind by Masa Dennison's departure and is doing a great job so without further Ado let's get right into it the range Riders continued their niname road trip by opening up a three-game series at Great Falls on on Tuesday it was a …

welcome everybody to the keeping score podcast from the daily Interlake in haggadone sports media I am Josh am this week on the Range Riders recap we will discuss the first half of the season and where the range Riders stand and can they lock up a playoff spot Gabe how are quickly filling the void left behind by Masa Dennison's departure and is doing a great job so without further Ado let's get right into it the range Riders continued their niname road trip by opening up a three-game series at Great Falls on on Tuesday it was a rough outing for colen Kafka as he gave up six earned runs and the range Riders lost 10 to5 Gabe Hal homered for the range Riders and it was the start of an outstanding week by Hal with more to come on that later game two of the series was postponed and they would play a double header seven inning game on Thursday for the 4th of July in game one the reigning pbl player of the week Christian ctle homered and the range Riders took a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth the voyagers responded with a three-run home run and a two-run home run to retake the lead six to5 heading into the final two innings and that would remain the final score in game two of the double header the range Riders use a patient plate approach drawing six walks and timely hits by how and JD moffen to propel to propel them to an 8 to3 win and Salvage a game in the three- game series The Range Riders return home on Friday to Glacier Bank Park after being on the road for the last 10 days and they were going to take on Great Falls yet again for another three-game set you can say it was home sweet home for starter Caleb Sophie as he pitched seven strong Innings allowing two runs and struck out nine one swing in the game was all the difference that the range riders need as Gabe Hal homered for a grand slam to give them a 4 to2 lead Christian kirtley would tack on a solo shot in the seventh and the range Riders won 5 to3 Saturday the range Riders bats wasted no time giving plenty of run support to Nick Zena who pitched six strong Innings only allowing three runs the range Rider scored six runs in the first two innings capped off by a chat castio Grand Slam this time ctle would add on two more in the fourth with the Home Run and the range Riders cruised to a 10 to five victory that home run by Christian kirtley made him tied for the franchise lead with 30 career home runs his next home run would have him in the sole possession of the range Riders all-time leader Sunday was my game of the week as the range Riders collected their fourth straight win and they did it in extraordinary fashion they started off the game collecting five straight hits in route to a five-run first inning they scored four more in the fourth three more in the fifth before a six run eighth inning was the cherry on top now for whatever reason the voyagers elected to go with the a positioned player to pitch the bottom of the eighth inning instead of a normal relief pitcher and the range Riders made sure they paid they capped off the eighth inning with three home runs one by AJ scap Kowski one by Freddy Gamo and one by Andy Atwood and it led him to an easy 18-7 Victory that'll do it for this week's scoring recap so let's get into this week's edition of in case you missed it Gabe howal has been a massive addition for the range riders in his return to Glacier batting lead off he sets the tone early for the team and in just 13 games so far this season he already has five home runs 20 RBI and 21 runs scored a big part of how wanting to return to the team is the connection he feels to the fans and the Valley area let's take a listen on what Hal had to say did the experience you have with the fans here have anything to do if you wanting to come back to competitive 100% man cuz you know like there's a decent fan base with the bananas but it's not as personal like these guys here in the valley I've been here for 3 years like they know me personally I see these guys you know these fans outside of the field in the community and and they're just always been good to me man so made a big impact to why I came back how's timing is also impeccable as he replaces Mason Dennison who recently had his contract purchased by the Chicago White Socks how is now the longest 10e player replacing role that Dennison once held as Mason Dennison was also the team leader in average and hits overall that Gabe halis took over since rejoining the team the range Riders are currently second in the Pioneer league standings with a two game lead in six remaining in the first half they control their Destiny of clinching a playoff birth that they can continue their winning ways Missoula has already clenched the top seed and if the range outters can keep their ground in the standings they will lock up their first ever playoff birth but players like AJ skep Kowski remind themselves to not look too far ahead you guys have six games left in the first half of the Season you guys are locked into that second spot right now what is your guys' focus going into this big six game series of close out the first half knowing that you could lock in a playoff spot yeah just taking it one game at a time and taking nothing for granted I mean you got to go out there and win every pitch you can't really worry about uh next game after that you kind of got to stay in the moment stay present no doubt this will be a big series for the range Riders so let's take a look at my keys to the series not only are the range Riders going on the road for their third Series in the last four they're facing a Boise Hawks team who has an outside chance to Leap Frog them in the standings as they currently sit at 22 and 20 but the Boise Hawks are unraveling they've gone two of eight in their last 10 but a big part of that was they were playing top ranked Missoula where they dropped five out of six my first key to the series finish the job Glacier is currently riding a four game winning streak and keeping that momentum going on the road will be huge and finishing the job is my first key to the series the second key to the series don't scoreboard watch Northern Colorado is only two games back of the range Riders and they have a six-game home Series against the second worst team in the Pioneer league but much like AJ said it shouldn't matter control what you can control if the range rers play their brand of baseball with timely hits great defense and their pitchers throw strikes they should have no reason why they shouldn't be able to handle business and lock up that playoff spot you guys have six games left before the first half of the season is over you're in a prime position right now to lock in a playoff spot for the rest of the year what is your focus like going into Boise oh we just got to just keep doing us man like if we focus on us back the ball just each pitch at a time one pitch at a time and do what we do then we should uh have no problems securing that playoff spot that's it for this week's edition of the range Riders recap hopefully this time next week the fans in the valley are celebrating the team's first ever playoff birth it's exciting time to be a fan of the range Riders and hopefully this is just the beginning of a very special year for the keeping score podcast at Daily Interlake and haggadone sports media I'm Josh amck and until next time take care