Late Homers Push Chukars to 6-4 Win

Everything that had been going wrong for the Chukars over their three-game losing streak was at least temporarily remedied Sunday afternoon, as the Idaho Falls bullpen held Grand Junction at bay while the Chukars offense rallied for a 6-4 win over the Rockies at Sam Suplizio Field.

In a reversal of recent trends it was the Chukars who trailed heading into the latter innings, with the Rockies up 4-2 through six frames. The Chukars, however, would rally for two unearned runs in the seventh to tie the game at 4-4 before catcher Jin-Ho Shin and third baseman Nick DelGuidice each hit solo homers in the eighth and ninth respectively to give Idaho Falls its fourth win of the season.

Chukars starting pitcher Zeb Sneed was hit and miss with his stuff Sunday afternoon, giving up two first inning runs before finishing with four innings pitched, with three runs given up on six hits. Enter Idaho Falls lefty reliever David Middendorf, who gave the Chukars some much needed relief by holding the Rockies to one run on three hits over three innings.

With the Grand Junction offense halted the Chukars bats went to work, scoring once in the 5th when Elier Hernandez drove in DelGuidice on a 2-out RBI single to make the score 3-2. The Rockies would respond with their lone run off of Middendorf in the sixth, before the Chukars picked up a couple of unearned runs in the 7th to tie the game at 4-4.

The inning started with back-to-back walks to second baseman Carlos Garcia and DelGuidice, before Grand Junction third baseman Kyle Newton threw Ethan Chapman's sacrifice bunt into right field allowing Garcia to score and DelGuidice to move to second. DelGuidice would score on batter latter when Adalberto Mondesi hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

With the game tied Middendorf shut down the Rockies again in the seventh, and set the stage for Shin's big fly. One night after hitting his first home run of the season, Shin blasted another mammoth home run over the left field wall to give the Chukars their first lead of the game at 5-4. DelGuidice would follow in the 9th, smoking the first pitch of the inning past the left field fence for his first homer of the year.

Chukars reliever Cory Hall would shutout the Rockies over the final two innings, including a very fortuitous 2-6-3 double play in the ninth to secure the victory.

Middendorf (1-0) would earn the win for the Chukars, while Hall (1) got his first save of the season. Rockies reliever Rayan Gonzalez (0-1) took the loss after giving up two runs on four hits over two innings pitched.

DelGuidice would finish the afternoon 3-4 with a home run, a double and four runs scored to lead the Chukars offense. Hernandez went 2-5 with a triple and 2-RBI.

With the win the Chukars improve to 4-3 while the Rockies drop to 3-4. The Chukars and Rox split their two-game series from Grand Junction.

The Chukars will now travel to Ogden to start a 3-game series with the first place Raptors. First pitch Monday is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

###