Owlz outlast Chukars in a battle of birds
The Chukars rallied late but they were unable to out-slug the Owlz, falling 12-6 in Windsor on Wednesday night.
Owlz outlast Chukars in a battle of birds
Will Vasseur
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho– The Chukars rallied late but they were unable to out-slug the Owlz, falling 12-6 in Windsor on Wednesday night.
Following a tough loss on Monday, the Chukars gave the ball to Tom Walker, who was making his tenth start of the season.
Countering Walker was Will Buraconak, who made his fifth start of the season for Northern Colorado.
The Owlz got the scoring started in the bottom of the first inning, scoring two runs in the inning and capturing a 2-0 lead.
Northern Colorado extended their lead in the bottom of the second, adding on three more runs. The inning was capped off by an Abdel Guadelupe RBI single, scoring Dave Mathews and giving the Owlz a 5-0 lead.
The Chukars started to claw back in the top of the third when Stephen Cullen launched a homerun to right field, his second of the season, cutting the Owlz lead to 5-1.
In the top of the fifth inning, the power of the Chukars was displayed again, when Anthony Frechette smacked his second homerun of the season and cut the defecate to 5-2.
However, Northern Colorado responded in the bottom of the fifth, putting up five runs on four hits, taking a 10-2 lead. The major blow in the inning came from Payton Robertson when he launched a three-run homerun to centerfield.
In the top of the sixth inning, Cordell Dunn Jr. got a run back for Idaho Falls, when he hit a solo homerun to left field, making it 10-3. With the homerun, Dunn continued his hot return from injury, now hitting .400 since returning from injury eight games ago.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Owlz struck again, thanks to an RBI single from Mathews, making it 11-3. On the night, Mathews finished 4/5 with three RBIs in the game.
The Chuakrs punched again in the top of the eight, thanks to an RBI from Eduardo Acosta, scoring Bryce Brown and making it 11-4.
The Owlz responded in the bottom of the eight, thanks to an RBI double from Henry George, putting them ahead 12-4.
Idaho Falls would score two runs in the top of the ninth, thanks to a two-RBI triple from Brandon Bohning, however, that is as close as the Chukars would get.
In the end, the Chukars dropped this game 12-6 at the hands of the Owlz.
For the Chukars, Walker was handed the loss, going 4.2 innings and allowing 10 runs on 12 hits.
Burnaconak collected the victory for the Owlz, going 6.0 inning and allowing three runs on eight hits.
With the loss, the Chukars’ record dropped to 2-6 in the second half of the season, and 17-39 overall.
The Chukars will look to bounce back on Thursday night when they square off with the Owlz again. The first pitch of that game will be at 7:05 p.m.