Idaho Falls Undone By Big Orem Ninth

In a back-and-forth game, the Idaho Falls Chukars held a lead, trailed by four and then crawled back to just one run behind the Orem Owlz entering the ninth inning.

That's when the Owlz broke it open.

Orem score five in the ninth thanks to four hits and four walks, and they salvaged a split of the two-game series at Melaleuca Field with an 11-5 victory over the host Chukars.

The teams, who played two in Orem immediately before traveling to Idaho Falls, traded off victories. Idaho Falls won the first game of each series, while Orem claimed the second of each set.

Despite the loss, the Chukars remain four-and-a-half games out of first in the South division, now with 12 to play in the regular season. Ogden took over first place by beating Grand Junction Saturday; the Rockies were one-half game ahead of the Raptors entering the day's action.

Behind a timely swing of the bat by Joe Dudek and excellent pitching from Igol Feliz, the Chukars held a 2-1 lead after five innings of play. Orem got on the board first with an unearned run in the third; the leadoff man reached on an error and with two out, a bad throw scored the run.

Meibrys Viloria opened the bottom of the fourth with a single up the middle, and he reached second when a pickoff throw got away. Dudek stepped up and hit a laser, 400 feet over the wall in left field, for the only lead the Chukars would hold.

Feliz came out for the sixth inning and ran into bad luck. The leadoff hitter reached on an error and the second batter walked. A sacrifice bunt put both in scoring position before a bouncing ball up the middle caromed off second base to score both runners.

Christian Flecha pitched the seventh inning and could have gotten out of the inning unscathed, but a popup by the second batter dropped untouched for a double before two singles, a sacrifice fly and passed ball plated three runs.

The Chukars weren't done. In the seventh, Rudy Martin rocked a one-out single to right and Nick Heath beat out an infield bouncer. Ricky Aracena also beat out a dribbler to score Martin, and after Viloria reached on a strikeout with a wild pitch, Dudek drew a bases-loaded walk.

The Orem lead was cut to 6-5 as Angelo Castellano reached on a dropped popup by the third baseman and sped around the bases on a Luke Willis triple. Willis was stranded at third as the next two hitters struck out.

In the ninth, however, the Owlz opened it up with four walks, three singles and a triple against two Idaho Falls relievers.

Starting Sunday, the Chukars welcome the Ogden Raptors to town for a four-game series. It's the final Wal-Mart Waterslide Sunday, with two waterslides provided free of charge for kids! Sunday will also feature a deal of $1.00 off all draft beer, presented by Watkins Distributing and KBEAR.

If you can't come to the game, make sure to listen to John Balginy and Andrew Haynes on the call on ESPN 980 AM (and the TuneIn app), 105.1 FM and 94.5 FM.

For tickets and other information, call (208) 522-8363, follow the Chukars on Facebook or Twitter (@ifchukars) or visit www.ifchukars.com.