Game 43:  Hawks win wild one on the road

Grand Junction, CO - In a game that featured 23 combined runs, the Boise Hawks eked out a one run victory, defeating the Grand Junction Rockies by a final score of 12-11 at Suplizio Field on Saturday night.

The Hawks scored four unanswered, plating a pair in the second and the third to make it 4-0 after three full innings.

Boise Hawks starter Mitch Lines had three perfect innings, before giving up his first hit, an opposite field single to Rockies designated hitter, Nate Scantlin, to lead off the fourth, before Rolando Martinez hit his first home run of the evening to cut the Boise lead in half to 4-2.

In the bottom of the fifth inning Grand Junction would take advantage of one of the strangest plays of the season to tie the game.

With two outs and two on, Scantlin hit a drive to the warning track in dead center field. Hawks center fielder, Myles Miller, tracked the ball to the wall, where he made a jumping catch smacking into the wooden fence 400 feet away from home plate in the process.

After coming off the wall, Miller shot his arms down to his hips in celebration, while releasing the ball out of his glove.

With the ball rolling in center field, the Rockies didn’t stop rounding the base paths, with two coming home and Scantlin getting to third before the Hawks got the ball back into the infield.

Gary Van Tol came out to protest what he thought was an inning ending catch, but was unable to get the call reversed, meaning Rolando Martinez got a chance to bat in what was now a 4-4 game.

Working the count to 3-1, he again smoked a ball over the right field fence for his second two run jack of the night.

Behind 6-4, the Boise Hawks channeled their frustration with the call in the previous inning into their at-bats, slapping an eight spot in the top of the sixth on the Rockies to wrestle the lead back.

The last three runs in the huge inning came with two outs, as Byron Smith came up huge, lacing a bases clearing double to left center, recording three RBIs on one swing like he did a night ago, to make it a 12-6 scoreline.

Boise would need all 12 of those runs, giving two back to Grand Junction in the bottom of the sixth, to make it 12-8, and then giving up a bases-clearing double to Jose Gutierrez with two outs in the bottom of the eight to bring the game within a run.

Matt Terrones would come in to register his first save as a Boise Hawk, getting Rockies first baseman, Luke Roskam, who was in the box as the winning run with Rolando Martinez on the basepaths, to ground out to his first base counterpart, Wladimir Galindo, to end the game.

With the wild victory, Boise has now taken three of the four played in the series so far, with an opportunity to earn a series victory tomorrow behind the right arm of Jayce Vancena. First pitch for Sunday’s ballgame is scheduled for 5:00 in Grand Junction.