OGDEN DROPS OPENER TO ROCKIES

OGDEN, UT - The final two games of the Ogden Raptors' series in Grand Junction, August 23-24, saw Ogden struggle with runners in scoring position while the Rockies put constant pressure on Raptors pitching to pull out victories.
In the teams' opener of their final series of the season, Wednesday at Lindquist Field, it was more of the same.
Grand Junction plated four runs in the first three innings and added on later, while Ogden didn't score until the fifth and tied their season high with five errors in an 8-5 loss.
The Rockies, shut down Friday over five-plus innings by Raptors starter Juan Morillo, came out swinging against him with two hits to score a run in the first. In the second, a leadoff triple was followed by a base hit for a 2-0 lead, and a two-out double added another.
In the third, the visitors picked up an unearned run thanks to errors by both members of the left side of Ogden's infield.
The Raptors got on the board in the home half of the fourth. Jorbit Vivas opened with a double and Zac Ching singled to drive him in. A hit by Marco Hernandez pushed Ching to third, with Jon Littell drawing a walk to load the bases. Aldrich De Jongh then smashed a single to center to score Ching and cut the deficit to 4-2.
A two-run homer was followed by a hit, error and groundout to put three up for Grand Junction in the top of the fifth, after which Jimmy Titus lit into a first-pitch fastball in the bottom half for his fifth home run of the campaign, making it 7-3.
The final Rockies run scored with a one-out double and two-out single in the seventh to push their lead to five.
Ogden threatened in the seventh, with two hits and a hit batter, but a double play after the first base knock hampered the rally.
Ryan Ward kicked off the eighth inning with a double to left, and he scored on a one-out groundout from Littell. De Jongh then singled, and he sprinted all the way around the bases for the final run of the game on a line drive to the center field fence from recent call-up Imanol Vargas.
Game two of the series is Thursday at 6:30 PM.