OGDEN, Utah - Lino again.
Seventeen-year-old Lino Garcia lined a two-out single with bases loaded in the top of the seventh (and final) inning Saturday to give the Missoula Osprey a 3-2 Pioneer League victory over Ogden.
Garcia's hit, and a 1-2-3 inning by reliever Jesus Silva in the bottom of the seventh, salvaged a doubleheader split for Missoula. The Raptors rapped 18 hits to win the opener 10-4 and break two streaks - Missoula's seven-game winning string and Ogden's seven-game losing skein.
The Osprey return home for a three-game stand against Billings, which holds a two-game lead over the O's in the Pioneer North after a 19-4 victory over Idaho Falls Saturday night.
Greg Perkin (0-1) takes the mound for the opener Sunday at Lindborg-Cregg Field at 5:05 p.m.
Garcia, the Osprey center fielder who usually bats ninth in the lineup, has now provided the winning hit in the final inning three times for the O's, who are 8-7. In all three instances - against Medicine Hat in the Missoula home opener on June 22, against the Raptors last Tuesday in Missoula - the final score was 3-2.
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Garcia drove in all three Osprey runs in the nightcap Saturday, the first on a groundout in the third inning. Missoula led the Raptors, last place in the Pioneer South at 5-10, only once before Garcia delivered the seventh.
Ogden almost escaped a jam in the frame. Reliever Dave Nolasco loaded the bases with no outs when Jesus Cota singled, Craig Nevels was hit by a pitch and Javier Boll bunted for a single.
Mike Adams took over for Nolasco and got a force-out at the plate. He then whiffed Kervin Jacobo on a full-count pitch for the second out. Adams threw two pitches outside the strike zone to Garcia, before Garcia lined a fastball to leftfield.
Nevels scored easily from third and left fielder Corry Parrott's throw in was cut off by an infielder as Boll tallied the winning run.
That left it up to Silva, in his second closing appearance after two starts. The 18-year-old flame thrower from Caracas, Venezuela, struck out Raptors leadoff hitter Brian Hicks. Jonah McClanahan, who had five hits in the first game, fouled out to first baseman Carlos Robinson. Travis Hinton, who hit home runs against the Osprey on Thursday and Friday, popped the first pitch to Boll in right field to end it.
Silva picked up Missoula's first save of the season. The victory went to Shane Waroff, who took over for spot starter Ryan Holsten in the fourth inning and pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless ball.
Missoula beat the Raptors five out of six times to complete the season series between the teams.
Ogden, the worst-hitting team in the Pioneer League going in, had three doubles and 15 singles in the opener, raising its team batting average 20 points to .241 in seven short innings.
McClanahan was 5-for-5, all singles, to equal his total in the four previous games against the Osprey. McClanahan, a second-year pro out of Monterey High School in California, was also the big stick in a 14-1 Raptors romp over the O's last August when he went 3-for-4 with a triple. That was Missoula's worse loss of 2000, as Saturday's was so far in 2001.
Ogden, playing as the visitor, roughed up Missoula starter Gabriel Mercedes (1-2) with 10 hits and five runs in a little over four innings. Carlos Gonzalez, a converted infielder who played in the Yankees organization last season, threw the final three innings for the O's and surrendered eight hits and four runs.
Mercedes, an 18-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic, lost contact for good in the fifth. McClanahan led off with a single, and Hinton and Jeff Eure followed with doubles.
Eure's two-bagger drove in two runs to make it 5-2 Raptors and sent Mercedes to the showers. Corey Hart and Carlos Soriano continued the hit parade against Gonzalez with singles, running Ogden's string to five straight hits. The Raptors led 7-2 by the time they were done in the fifth.
Soriano and Hart each finished with three hits, and Soriano drove in three runs. Eure also had three RBIs and collected a double and a single.
Missoula touched Ogden starter Geraldo Castillo for six hits and three runs before Travis Horne took over for the last two innings. The two Raptor pitchers struck out 10 between them. Castillo (1-1) got the victory, Mercedes (1-2) the loss.
Missoula slugger Jesus Cota had his ninth multi-hit game of the season, collecting a double and two singles. The lefty drove in Mike Lopez with a single to right in the third. He scored Kevin Brand from second by banging a two-batter off the left-field wall in the fifth.
Cota collected no more RBIs in the nightcap, but has a league-leading 23 in 15 games. Lyle Overbay, the Missoula first baseman in 1999 who set a short-season minor league record with 101 RBIs, had 21 in the first 15 games.
Bird songs: Missoula outfielder Jeramy Janz singled in each game Saturday, extending his hitting streak to 10 games - longest in the Pioneer League this season. Janz went 0-for-3 in the season-opener at Billings and has collected at least one hit in every game he's played in since. … The Osprey didn't commit an error Saturday and went errorless in four of the six games against Ogden. … Osprey second baseman Scott Hairston earned the distinction of Missoula's first ejection in 2001. The third-round draft choice in the June draft complained about a called third strike in the fifth inning of the opener, then was thumbed from the dugout one batter later, apparently for continuing his vocal demonstration. … The doubleheader prompted Missoula pitching coach Mark Davis to start reliever Ryan Holsten in the nightcap. Holsten gave up two hits and two runs before leaving with two outs in the fourth after Ogden's Chris Barnwell tripled in the go-ahead run. Barnwell, a shortstop, took a batting average of .108 into the day. He went 4-for-7 in the two games. … The Osprey bullpen surrendered just three earned runs during the seven-game winning streak after giving up 16 in an 0-6 start. Neither reliever in Saturday's late win gave up a run. … Missoula returns to its normal rotation Sunday against Billings. Perkin (0-1) takes the mound at Lindborg-Cregg Field three days short of a year since he threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout against Helena.
Game 1
Ogden 10, Missoula 4
| OGDEN | MISSOULA | ||||||||||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||||||||||
| Santana 2b | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Brand ss | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||||||
| McClanahan rf | 5 | 2 | 5 | 1 | Vugteveen lf | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Hinton dh | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | Lopez 3b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| Eure 3b | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | Nevels 3b | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| Hart 1b | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | Hairston 2b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| Soriano lf | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | Corporan ss | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| Parrott cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Cota dh | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 | ||||||||
| Haggard c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Janz rf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||
| Barnwell ss | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Chilsom rf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| Robinson 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Jacobo lf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Sherlock c | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Garcia cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| Totals | 38 | 10 | 18 | 10 | Totals | 28 | 4 | 8 | 4 | ||||||||
| Ogden | 012 | 042 | 1 | - | 10 | ||||||||||||
| Missoula | 011 | 010 | 1 | - | 4 | ||||||||||||
DP- Missoula. LOB-Ogden 8, Missoula 9. 2B-Soriano, Hinton, Eure, Jacobo, Cota. SB-Brand.
IP H R ER BB SO
Ogden
| Castillo W,1-1 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Horne | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Missoula
| Mercedes L,1-2 | 4 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 2 | Gonzalez | 3 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
HBP - by Catillo (Lopez), by Horne (Sherlock). WP-Castillo, horne, Mercedes, Gonzalez. Balk - Castillo 2. Umpires-Bojo Morris, Todd Waters. T-2:22.
Game 2
Missoula 3, Ogden 2
| MISSOULA | OGDEN | |||||||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | |||||||
| Brand 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Hicks cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Lopez 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | McClanahan rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Janze lf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Hinton dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Cota 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Villaneuva 3b | 3 | 0 | 2 | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Chilsom pr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Hart 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Robinson lf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eure dh | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Nevels dh | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Haggard c | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Boll rf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Alvarado c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| Montilla c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Parrott lf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Jacobo ss | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Torres 2b | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Garcia cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | Barnwell ss | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Totals | 26 | 3 | 6 | 3 | Totals | 27 | 2 | 6 | 2 | |||||
| Missoula | 001 | 000 | 2 | - | 3 | |||||||||
| Ogden | 001 | 100 | 0 | - | 6 | |||||||||
E-Villaneuva, Alvarado. DP- Ogden 2. LOB-Missoula 6, Ogden 7. 2B - Montilla, Villanueva. SB-Jacobo, Barnwell. S-Janz.
IP H R ER BB SO
Missoula
| Holsten | 3.2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Waroff W, 2-0 | 2.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Silva S,1 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Helena
| Richardson | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |||||||||||||||
| Nolasco L, 1-1 | 1.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Adams | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | HBP - by Holsten (Eure), by Nolasco (Nevels). |
Umpires-Todd Waters, Bojo Morris. T-1:51. A-4,092.
Pioneer League
First Half
North Division
| W | L | Pct. | GB | |
| Billings | 10 | 5 | .667 | - |
| Great Falls | 8 | 7 | .533 | 2 |
| Missoula | 8 | 7 | .533 | 2 |
| Medicine Hat | 4 | 11 | .267 | 6 |
South Division
| W | L | Pct. | GB | ||
| Provo (Angels) | 12 | 3 | .800 | - | |
| ID Falls Padres | 7 | 8 | .467 | 5 | |
| Casper (Rockies) | 6 | 9 | .400 | 6 | |
| Ogden Brewers | 5 | 9 | .357 | 61/2 | |
Saturday's games
Billings 19, Idaho Falls 4
Casper 7, Provo 5, (10)
Great Falls 5, Medicine Hat 0
Ogden 10, Missoula 4
Missoula 3, Ogden 2
Sunday's games
Billings at Missoula
Great Falls at Medicine Hat
Idaho Falls at Ogden
Provo at Casper
Monday's games
Billings at Missoula
Great Falls at Medicine Hat
Idaho Falls at Ogden
Provo at Casper
Saturday's games
Casper 7, Provo 5
Casper 000 004 0102 - 7 8 1
Provo 100 012 0000 - 510 1
Buret, Vargas (6), Serrano (8) and Ingram. Dennis, Smith (6), Sullivan (9) and Corbeil. W-Serrano (1-0). L-Sullivan (1-1). HRs-Casper, Mulqueen (2).
Great Falls 5, Medicine Hat
M. Hat 000 000 000 - 0 4 1
G. Falls 000 001 22x - 5 7 0
Costello, Spillman (6), Fuller (7) and Corrente; Astacio, Turuda (6), Lizarraga (8) and Aracena. W-Turuda (2-0). L-Spillman (0-2). HRs-none. A-2,430.
Up next: Tonight vs. Billings, 5 o'clock, Lindborg-Cregg Field, KGRZ (1450 AM)