RAPTORS COME BACK, HANG ON FOR RECORD-TYING WIN

OREM, UT - It took a couple of innings for the Ogden Raptors to come alive Thursday night, but once they did they had just enough to stave off the Orem Owlz for a 6-5 win to finish the first half of the 2019 Pioneer League season.
After falling behind, 4-0, the Raptors plated three runs in both the fifth and sixth innings and stranded the potential tying and winning runs in scoring position to end the game. The victory was Ogden's 31^st in the half against seven losses, tying the circuit mark for best record in any half. The only previous team to go 31-7 in a half since the Pioneer League instituted the two-half schedule in 1995 was Orem in the second half of 2009.
The game was just a matter of feet from ending a different way. Ogden entered the ninth inning with a 6-4 advantage, and Reza Aleaziz recorded a flyout on the first pitch he threw. The second offering was hit into right field, a passed ball advanced the runner to second while a groundout marked the second out but moved the runner to third. Aleaziz got ahead of the next hitter before a line drive glanced off his glove and into center field to plate the run from third.
The ninth hitter in Orem's order stepped in without a hit on the night, but he lined the first pitch down the right field line for a double, putting the tying run on third and winning run on second and bringing up the top of the order, Los Angeles Angels 2019 first-round pick Will Wilson. Aleaziz buckled down and induced a groundout to second base to strand both runners and earn his fourth save of the year.
Early on, it appeared the Raptors wouldn't be in position to win the game in the ninth. They put only one runner on base in the first four innings, while the Owlz picked up a three-run home run in the third and another run in the fourth, all with two out.
In the fifth, however, Jimmy Titus drew a leadoff walk and then scored when Jon Littell's smash down the left field line was inches fair. Andrew Shaps lined a double to the wall in right and Littell scored, then Marco Hernandez lined a single up the middle to plate Shaps and draw Ogden within one.
The Raptors would pull ahead for good in the sixth. Titus drew a one-out walk but was erased on a fielder's choice; it was nearly an inning-ending double play, but the throw to first skipped by and Littell went to second. Shaps walked to put two on with two out, and in a 1-2 count Hernandez again came up clutch with another RBI single to center. Shaps trotted home one pitch later on a wild pitch, then Hernandez scored from third on Brandon Wulff's double down the right field line.
Mitchell Tyranski retired all four batters he faced in his first Raptors appearance to earn the win, and Nelfri Contreras struck out three in two and two-thirds scoreless innings to send the game to the ninth.
Ogden and Orem kick off the second half at Lindquist Field Friday night in the first game of a two-game series. It's another Free T Friday, with the first 300 fans receiving a free Raptors T-shirt celebrating the franchise's 1000^th all-time win on July 20 against Rocky Mountain.