Friday’s game: Goldpanners fall after massive rally sees Sockeyes pick up 13-9 win
The Goldpanners and Sawtooth Sockeyes were in action on Friday as the Goldpanners looked to make it three consecutive wins to start the series. After a massive lead early on, the Goldpanners were eventually overtaken as 13 unanswered runs for Sawtooth saw them pick up a 13-9 victory.
After quiet offensive performances for both teams in the previous game prior – a 2-0 win for Alaska – the Goldpanners were quick to bring in the runs this time around. Eight runs scored in the bottom of the second saw the team storm out for an early lead.
The team collected seven hits through that stint, over triple of what they had in the previous game (two). With runners on second and third, back-to-back hit batters brought in the opening run for the Goldpanners.
Now up 1-0 with the bases loaded, Alaska began to unload. Rocco Caballero, Grant Scholzen, Griffin Harrison, Tyson Reis and Matt Leitermann all contributed to the scoring effort with RBIs. At the end of the second, the Goldpanner lead had grown to 8-0.
“When these guys hit, they hit,” Goldapanners’ new field manager Carlos Gonzales said postgame. “In the middle of the game, we needed to fight a little more to get back into our rhythm.”
Sawtooth struggled to find the same run-scoring success early on. However, their productivity drastically turned around as the game went on.
Goldpanners’ starter Mason Robertson pitched a shutout over his four innings of play before turning things over to the bullpen in the fifth, where the Sockeyes began their stretch of 13 unanswered runs.
“I thought Mason Robertson did great today. It was awesome. That was as good as we’ve seen him,” Gonzales said. “We knew it was kind of going to be a bullpen today. We were throwing position players there in the end. That’s just how it goes in a five game series.”
Three runs in the fifth helped to close the gap, but the Goldpanners still held a comfortable advantage. In the sixth inning, the gap had shrunk to 8-7 as four more runs were scored. Sawtooth took the lead in the seventh inning, scoring six runs to make it 13-8 in their favor.
At the plate, the Goldpanners were facing five consecutive innings of going scoreless since their second-inning bombardment. Now trailing, they needed to find a spark offensively. A Matt Leitermann RBI in the bottom of the eighth provided the only other run they would find, before going on to fall 13-9.
An opportunity to bounce back awaited the Goldpanners on the following day, as the two teams met again on Saturday.
“As you saw in the second, we barreled a lot of line drives. We’ll be at them tomorrow and we’ll be okay.” Gonzales said about his thoughts going into the next game of the series.
Saturday’s game: Sockeyes top Goldpanners with 6-4 win
The first third of the game was closely contested. The Sockeyes jumped ahead early on with three runs in the second inning before the Goldpanners responded with three of their own in the bottom of the third. Heading into the middle innings, the game was tied at 3-3.
Both offenses had shown positive signs up to that point. Five hits for the Sockeyes and six for the Goldpanners showed potential for both teams to light up the scoreboard. The next score came in the sixth for the Sockeyes, giving them a 4-3 lead, but the Goldpanners equalized in the bottom half, continuing the alternating scoring bursts.
A tie going into the eighth set the stage for late-game heroics. Two runs gave the Sockeyes the lead once again, as the Goldpanners needed to fight from behind for the third time in the contest if they wished to walk away victorious.
After keeping Sawtooth scoreless in the top of the ninth, the ‘Panners faced their last set of plate appearances. They wouldn’t find the comeback needed, as they dropped their second straight game to the Sockeyes by a score of 6-4.
Despite the loss, the Goldpanners had their moments. The team collected 11 hits and had three of their top four bats in the order finish with multiple hits. A total of eight runners left on base proved to be costly in a game that was tightly contested throughout.
Grant Scholzen (2-4), Rocco Caballero (3-5, one RBI), Matt Leiterman (2-4, two RBIs) and Matt Chavez (2-4) were the main contributors to the offensive effort in the loss.
On the mound, Shaw Lee went five innings as the starter. He finished with five hits and three earned runs allowed, no walks and four strikeouts. He was followed by Lachemann, Logan Drummond and Adam Troppmann in relief.
Following the loss, the Goldpanners record moved to 16-8-2 on the year. They’ll look to snap their current two-game skid against the Sockeyes on Sunday at 2 p.m.
