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O'Connor, Paddleheads slug way past Riders twice

daily inter lake, kalispell, mont.
·4 min read

Jul. 31—The PaddleHeads are still hard-hitting — especially McClain O'Connor.

Missoula shook off a leadoff home run by Glacier's Gabe Howell with seven straight runs Sunday, and then scored four more times late in an 11-5 Pioneer League win.

Their second straight win and fourth in this six-game series kept them a game back of Great Falls (9-3) in the North Division second-half standings. The Range Riders, who lost Saturday's game 3-2 at Glacier Bank Park, fell to 5-7 this half.

Missoula won the first half division title, and if the Range Riders don't win the second half then they need the PaddleHeads to do it. Then the second-best overall record — Glacier is 36-22, 11 games better than Great Falls — makes the PL playoffs.

An error in left field let in two runs as the PaddleHeads took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning, and when O'Connor hit a two-run homer — the fifth in four games for the Missoula shortstop — it was 7-1 in the sixth.

The Range Riders scored three times in the seventh to close to 7-4: Kingston Liniak hit his 10th homer and Colin Gordon hit an RBI triple and scored on a wild pitch. After Missoula scored in the top of the eighth, Dean Miller's RBI single in the bottom cut the gap to 8-5.

Then Keaton Greenwalt hit a two-run single in the ninth for Missoula, putting the game out of reach.

The Range Riders are off Monday, and start a six-game road trip Tuesday at Billings. They head to Great Falls for three games starting Friday.

Sunday

PaddleHeads 000 322 013 — 11 13 0

Range Riders 100 000 310 — 5 12 1

Connor Schultz, Mark Timmins (5), Karl Blum (7), John LaRossa (8), Cody Thompson (8) and Luis Navarro. Noah Barros, Ryan Cloude (5), John Natoli (8), Roy Robles (9), Justin Coleman (9) and Matt Clayton. WP — Timmins (3-0). LP — Barros (5-3).

MISSOULA PADDLEHEADS — Patrick Chung 2-5, Dondrei Hubbard 1-4, Jakob Guenther 3-5, Keaton Greenwalt 2-5, Cameron Thompson 1-4, Lui Navarro 2-4, Jacob Kline 1-4, McClain O'connor 1-4, Ryan Cash 0-4.

GLACIER RANGE RIDERS — Gabe Howell 2-4, Colin Gordon 1-4, Dean Miller 3-4, Jackson Raper 0-3, Clayton 1-5, Mason Dinesen 0-0, Crews Taylor 2-5, Christian Kirtley 2-5, Kingston Liniak 1-5, Ben Mconnell 0-3.

2B — Guenther, Thompson. 3B — Gordan. HR — O'Connor (13), Howell (13), Liniak. RBIs — Greenwalt 3, Navarro 2, O'Connor 2, Guenther, Howell, Gordon, Miller, Liniak.

PaddleHeads 3,

Range Riders 2

O'Connor hit two home runs for the Paddleheads Saturday, including a two-run shot that make a 0-0 tie in the seventh inning.

His second made it 3-1 in the ninth inning. This was important because Matt Clayton hit a solo shot of his own in Missoula's half of the ninth.

That was Glacier's second hit; the first was Christian Kirtley's solo home run in the second.

Missoula pitcher Izzy Fuentes improved to 6-0 this season, allowing one hit and three walks in seven innings, with seven strikeouts.

Nick Zegna (5-2), Luke Dawson and Michael YaSenka combined to scatter eight hits and a walk for Glacier. Zegna allowed six hits, one walk and two runs in 6 1-3 innings, fanning two.

Saturday

PaddleHeads 000 000 201 — 3 8 0

Range Riders 010 000 001 — 2 2 1

Izzy Fuentes, John LaRossa (8), Mark Timmins (8), Zach Penrod (9) and Luis Navarro. Nick Zegna, Luke Dawson (7), Michael YaSenka (8) and Clayton. WP — Fuentes (6-0). LP — Zegna (5-2). S—Penrod (10).

PADDLEHEADS — Chung 2-4, Hubbard 1-3, Guenther 0-4, Greenwalt 0-4, Thompson 0-4, Navarro 0-3, Kline 0-4, O'Connor 3-4, Cash 2-4.

RANGE RIDERS — Howell 0-3, Gordon 0-3, Raper, Clayton 1-4, Benjamin Fitzgerald 0-3, Dinsen 0-0, Kirtley 1-3, Taylor 0-3, Liniak 0-3, Lucky 0-2.

HR — O'Connor 2 (12), Clayton (8), Kirtley (6). RBIs — O'Connor 3, Clayton, Kirtley.