[Empty Body]
OGDEN, Utah - The Billings Mustangs (4-5, 22-24-1) dropped their series opener 2-1 to the Ogden Raptors (6-4, 29-19) in front of 5,342 on Friday at Lindquist Field.
Pitching once again dominated between the two teams as there would not be a single inning on either side with more than two hits. Edwin Uceta (1-2) again looked polished as he threw shutout baseball in his five innings in the start. The Raptors' righty has now thrown 11 shutout innings against Billings while allowing just two hits and one walk to go along with nine strikeouts.
Mac Sceroler (0-2) was solid for the Mustangs as well, but could not get the offensive support that he needed. Despite being dealt the loss, Sceroler allowed just two runs while striking out six. He has struck out 14 combined in his last two starts.
Ogden took a 1-0 lead with a run in the third. Kevin LaChance led off the inning with a single, advanced on Brayan Morales' single behind him and later scored when Rylan Bannon grounded out to third. Morales collected the only multi-hit outing for either side, going 2-for-4 with a run and two steals.
The Raptors lead then stretched out to 2-0 in the fifth when Morales got aboard to lead off on a fielding error. He would score on Romer Cuadrado's RBI single. The Mustangs would commit two errors in the game while the Raptors played mistake-free baseball.
Billings' lone run came in the top of the sixth when Miles Gordon hit his sixth homerun of the year off Patrick Duester. The homerun ended a streak of 13 consecutive batters retired by Uceta leading up to that point.
John Ghyzel made his Pioneer League debut for the Mustangs. The right-hander from the University of Rochester threw two shutout innings and struck out three.
The Mustangs will try to even the series with the Raptors in game two on Saturday. First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m.
