Bats Quiet As Raptors Drop Opener

Last week, the Ogden Raptors visited Billings and lost three of four as the offense struggled to sustain rallies with clutch hits.
Friday night, in the first of a seven-game homestand, the Raptors again saw too many promising innings ends quietly in a 6-3 loss to the visiting Mustangs.
While Billings was send line drives and fly balls all over the place, even when behind in the count, Ogden set their own tone by stranding a pair of runners in the second. They ended up leaving six and going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
The visitors opened the scoring in the second, when Jose Chacin left a 1-2 offering up and saw it hammered off Raptor Ridge for a leadoff double. After a close play at third saw the runner called safe, a sacrifice fly brought in the run.
In the fourth, the Mustangs strung together five straight hits to score three times. Only an out at second when a runner overran the base kept the inning from getting too far out of hand.
Billings added one on back-to-back doubles in the fifth, and a leadoff homer in the seventh made it 6-0.
Ogden had put a pair of runners on base with one out in the second, but they failed to score. A one-out double in the third was stranded, as well as a single in the fourth and walk in the fifth.
Finally, in the bottom of the seventh inning, Marcus Chiu, in his Raptors debut, hit a sharp single to left. James Outman popped up to shallow left, but the swirling wind caused the ball to drop untouched. The Billings shortstop tried to force Chiu at second, but it sailed down the right field line. Chiu scored, and Outman ended up at third base before scoring on a groundout.
The hosts rallied again in the ninth. Matt Cogen drew a leadoff walk, and with one out Outman singled to left. Eric Peterson grounded into a force out, but a wild pitch scored Cogen to bring Ogden within three and a strikeout ended the game.
Game two of the three-game series is Saturday night at 7:00.