The Ogden Raptors won their first Pioneer League Championship with a 2 games to 1 game series win over the Great Falls Voyagers. That made it two league titles for Dodger minor league affiliates in 2017, the first going to the Dodgers2 team that won the Dominican Summer League title over the Dodgers1 team.
Happy bus ride back to Ogden! Your 2017 Pioneer League Champions! pic.twitter.com/qLCMfoJ1gd
— Ogden Raptors (@ogdenraptors) September 18, 2017
Tulsa had a two games to none lead in their best-of-five series but they could not get any offense over the weekend and they lost three straight to the Midland RockHounds. Midland has now won four straight Texas League championships.
Player of the day
It was a complete team win for Ogden on Sunday but a winner must be chosen and today it is Romar Cuadrado who played parts in two multi-run innings for the Raptors. Cuadrado was 10-for-19 (.526) with seven runs scored and five RBI in Ogden’s five playoff games.
A special shout out to Dennis Santana who pitched six good innings in the Texas League Championship series finale. Santana gave up an unearned run and struck out seven.
Double-A Tulsa
The Drillers lost their third straight game and the Midland RockHounds (Athletics) won the Texas League Championship by shutting out the Drillers 1-0 on Sunday.
The RockHounds shutout the Drillers twice this weekend and it was their complete shutdown of the Driller offense that gave them their fourth straight Texas League championship.
The lone run in this game scored when the first batter of the game, Jorge Mateo, got to second on a throwing error by Erick Mejia. Two outs later, Mateo scored on Viosergy Rosa’s single. That was the only run scored in this game.
The RockHounds had their chances as they went 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left 13 runners on base.
Dennis Santana started for the Drillers and he pitched very well, aside from the unearned run he gave up, he struck out seven and walked just one.
James Naile also pitched six innings and he got the win for the RockHounds. Naile gave up five hits and two walks, he struck out six Drillers. After that, four relievers came in for RockHounds, combined they gave up no hits, a walk and had two strikeouts.
As noted, the Drillers offense never made it back from Midland, in the series finale, they had five singles and three walks. They went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position but never really put much pressure on the RockHounds.
It was a tough loss but Tulsa did play well in the second half and should have a good team next year.
Rookie-Pioneer Ogden
The Raptors and Great Falls Voyagers (White Sox) played twice on Sunday and the Raptors were able to win Game 3 to take their first Pioneer League Championship. After dropping Game 2 by a 15-3 score, the Raptors jumped out early and went on to beat the Voyagers 8-3 to take Game 3 and the title.
The two games that were scheduled for Sunday were treated like a normal minor league double-header so that meant they were seven-inning games.
Game 2 was decided very quickly when the Voyagers scored eight runs in the bottom of the first. After the Raptors scored their second run, the Voyagers closed the door by scoring five runs, taking a 14-2 lead to the fifth inning.
Only Raptor reliever Mark Washington had a scoreless appearance in Game 2. Rylan Bannon did hit his third home run of the series to provide the one offensive highlight for the Raptors.
Game 3 started with the Raptors scoring twice in the first inning and Ogden starter Edwin Uceta made that stand up for the first four innings. Uceta gave up one run and three hits in his four innings of work.
Leading 3-1 going to the fifth, the Raptors put two more runs on the board with two outs. First a walk to Mitchell Hansen, a triple by Brayan Morales and a double from Connor Heady made it 5-1. The Voyagers scored twice in the bottom of the inning but the Raptors were able to get out of the inning with the tying runs on base.
Three straight doubles from Donovan Casey, Luis Paz and Romar Cuadrado made it 7-3 and then with two outs, Morales singled home Cuadrado to make it 8-3.
In the bottom of the seventh, Justin Hoyt retired the side in order to give the Raptors their championship title.
Sunday box scores
Texas League
Game 5: Midland 1, Tulsa 0
Pioneer League
Game 2: Great Falls 15, Ogden 3
Game 3: Ogden 8, Great Falls 3