Welcome everybody to the Keeping Score podcast with the Daily Inter Lake, I am Josh Amick. This week on the Range Riders recap, the Riders are playing their best ball of the second half, Patrick Wicklander sets a franchise-record for strikeouts and the Riders go into the final week of the regular season so without further ado, let’s get into it.

Photo Castillo

In game 1 at Glacier Bank Park, Chad Castillo bested Dylan Leach in the knockout round and the Range Riders escaped for a wild 3-2 comeback victory over the Billings Mustangs. Down to their final …

Welcome everybody to the Keeping Score podcast with the Daily Inter Lake, I am Josh Amick. This week on the Range Riders recap, the Riders are playing their best ball of the second half, Patrick Wicklander sets a franchise-record for strikeouts and the Riders go into the final week of the regular season so without further ado, let’s get into it.

Photo Castillo

In game 1 at Glacier Bank Park, Chad Castillo bested Dylan Leach in the knockout round and the Range Riders escaped for a wild 3-2 comeback victory over the Billings Mustangs. Down to their final out in the 9th, Ty Penner laced a double down the right field line to tie the game at 2 a piece and Castillo brought it home in extras. Cooper Benson also had a great game, pitching 7 1-3 shutout innings and the Riders took game one.

Photo of Liniak

In game 2, Kingston Liniak hit a home run and drove in three runs to lead the Range Riders to a 4-3 victory. Jared Engman picked up the win after pitching six strong innings, striking out seven.

The Range Riders completed the three-game home sweep on Thursday, and it was my game of the week.

Photo of Wicklander

Patrick Wicklander who has been an absolute stud since joining the Range Riders etched himself into the record books. He set a franchise record with 16 strikeouts in eight innings pitched and Noah Owen closed the door in the 9th inning for a 4-2 win. The offense was provided by Ryan McCarthy who hit a solo home run in the fourth inning and Ben Fitzgerald hit a two-run home run in the fourth.

They headed to Billings on Friday to start another three-game series and that is where their winning streak ended. The offense was held in check as Ty Penner drove in both runs and they dropped game one, 7-2. It was a close game until the seventh inning when the Mustangs tacked on three runs to extend their lead 6-2.

Game two Kingston Liniak went 3-for-4 with a home run and drove in four RBIs as the Range Riders used three home runs to power them to an easy 10-1 victory Saturday. Ty Bothwell picked up his first win in his second start with the team, pitching nearly 6 shutout innings and striking out 11. Andy Atwood drove in three runs, including a two-run home run and Freddy Guilamo added on a solo home run for an easy game 2 win.

In the final game of the series the Range Riders homered three more times, but it wasn’t enough as they dropped the rubber match of the series 6-5. Christian Kirtley started the scoring for the Range Riders with a two-run shot in the first inning for his team-leading 20th home run. Ben Fitzgerald, who is behind Kirtley for the team lead hit his 14th home run of the season and Ryan McCarthy continued his hot hitting going 3-for-4 with a solo home run.

That’s it for this week’s scoring recap so let’s get into this weeks in case you missed it.

This late in the season there are not a lot of moves being made by any of the teams in the Pioneer League, but let’s revisit some of the late moves the Range Riders made that had major payoffs this week.

In my game of the week starter Patrick Wicklander set a franchise record with 16 strikeouts and was a part of a flurry of moves the Range Riders made on August 6th. Wicklander, who has made it as high as AAA, looks like the clear-cut favorite to be the game 1 starter when the playoffs come.

Photo of McCarthy

Ryan McCarthy was also one of the players signed on the 6th and since joining the team he leads all hitters with a .390 batting average. Kingston Liniak re-joined the team on August 10th and in 20 games he has hit 6 home runs with 24 RBIs. Let’s hear his thoughts on the makeup of this team.

Audio clip of Liniak

Ty Bothwell struck out 11 in his last start and appears to be another pitcher in line to make a big impact come playoff time.

Looking ahead in their final series against the Ogden Raptors it is a great opportunity for the Range Riders to continue winning and take some momentum into the postseason. The Raptors currently have the worst record in the second half of the season so it’s a great chance to capitalize and get some wins.

Sometime next week the Range Riders playoff opponent will be announced, and they will host a playoff game on either Sept 10th or Sep 12th so stay tuned for that special announcement. For the Keeping Score podcast from the Daily Inter Lake this has been the Range Riders recap, I am Josh Amick and until next time, take care.