Chukars drop crucial game to Raptors 14-13; fall one game back of Missoula for first place

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Offense was the name of the game for the Chukars and the Ogden Raptors Wednesday night, as Idaho Falls lost a slugfest 14-13. Right from the first pitch, quite literally, the bats came alive for both sides in the first inning and Ogden pulled out the road victory against the Chukars in this one. With the loss, the Chukars fall a game out of first place in the Pioneer League northern division behind the Missoula Paddleheads.

Jakob Goldfarb set the tone with his league-leading 14th home run of the season on the first pitch of the game from Daniel Silva. The Raptors kept scoring in the first inning. Kyle Kaufman made it 2-0 with an RBI single, a pair of runs scored on a Webb Little error at first base, and Josh Broughton capped the inning with a two-run triple to make it 6-0 Ogden.

But the Chukars stormed back in this one. In the bottom of the first inning, Matt Feinstein got the Chukars on the board with an RBI double and Thomas DeBonville made it a 6-3 game with a two-run single.

Idaho Falls took the lead thanks to a five-run fourth inning. Back-to-back-to-back RBI singles from Brady West, Tyler Van Marter, and Steve Barmakian tied the game at six. Matt Feinstein gave the Chukars the lead with an RBI single of his own and Andrew Don drove in another run with a sacrifice fly to make it 8-6 Chukars. Idaho Falls scored two more in the fifth to cap off a stretch of ten unanswered runs for the Chukars, resulting in a 10-6 lead.

But the Raptors scored eight of the next nine runs, all in the final four innings of the game. Raptors took the lead with five runs in the sixth, ultimately taking the lead on a David Maberry bases-clearing, three-run triple.

After the Chukars tied the game in the back half of the inning thanks to DeBonville RBI double, the Raptors took the lead back, scoring in consecutive innings to take a 14-11 lead to the bottom of the ninth.

Idaho Falls mounted a comeback in the ninth, as Hunter Hisky drove in a run with an RBI double and Brady West made it a one-run game with an RBI groundout.

However, it wasn't meant to be as Webb Little popped out to third with the tying run ninety feet from scoring.

The Chukars now trail the Missoula Paddleheads for first in the northern division by a game with two games left in the first half of the season. Idaho Falls has the tiebreaker, but the Chukars need to win their final two games and Missoula needs to lose one game, or the Chukars can win one of the next two games if Missoula loses each of their next two games.