Owlz Win on Wild Pitch in Extras

Jerod Yakubik scored on a wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Owlz a wild 12-11 win that saw a huge comeback in the 8th inning.

Chris Giovinazzo watched a ball sail passed Brewers catch Tyler Roberts and immediately stepped out of the way, and started signaling for Yakubik to come home. Yakubik came home and gave the Owlz the victory. The 10th inning started with Yakubik being hit by a pitch by an 0-2 pitch from Jacob Barnes. He got to second a single by Ryan Jones. Kaleb Cowart struck out swinging, Trevor Hairgrove hit a ground ball to second to move the runners over, and then Yakubik came home on the wild pitch.

The win did not come easy as the Owlz had to fight back in the 8th inning. Orem (16-9) trailed 11-6 going to the bottom of the 8th, but came up with five runs against two of the best relievers for Helena (7-18).

Alex Jones pitched a scoreless 7th, and started the 8th by striking out Giovinazzo. Kyle Mahoney was hit by a pitch, Andrew Ray walked, and Taylor Lindsey then singled to load the bases. Gary Mitchell pinch-hit for Wes Hatton and hit an infield single to bring home Mahoney.

The bases were loaded, so the Brewers turned to their closer Sean Albury. Albury had not given up a single run this year before giving up two to Orem last week. The Owlz once again had no trouble with Albury. Jerod Yakubik hit a deep fly ball to right field off of Albury that was misread by Steve Felix in right. The ball sailed over his head and cleared the bases to make it an 11-10 game. Ryan Jones followed with a RBI double that scored Yakubik and tied the game at 11-11.

Mike Johnson made his first professional start, giving up just two runs in three innings. Baudilio Lopez gave up four runs, Suammy Baez gave up three and Aaron Meade allowed two runs. However, Garrett Baker and Nick Mutz (2-2) threw 3.1 combined scoreless innings to allow the Owlz to come back and win.

Ryan Jones finished 3-for-6 with a RBI, Andrew Ray hit his first home run since July 9th, and Taylor Lindsey went 2-for-5 with one run and 2 RBIs.

The Owlz are now five games up on Casper with 13 games to play. Friday night will be a Kidz Giveaway item night at the ballpark.