IDAHO FALLS — The Chukars and Ogden Raptors played two games Wednesday. Twice, Idaho Falls rallied in the ninth to send the game into the overtime “knockout” stage. And twice, Gabe Vasquez homered his club to a win.
According to Pioneer Baseball League rules, there are no extra-inning games.
Instead, when a game is tied at the end of regulation, there is a “knockout” home run derby, during which each team sends one player to the plate. Those two players each get five outs, with which they are to hit as many homers as possible. The player with more homers earns his team a win.
The Chukars (29-20 overall, 2-0 second half) rode with Vasquez, their “Latino Bambino,” while the Raptors (26-23, 0-2) tapped Christopher Sargent Jr.
Vasquez is tied for sixth on the team in homers this season, with seven, but is one of the players manager Troy Percival has tasked with representing the club during the weekly home run derby. Sargent is tied for fourth in the league, with his 15 long balls.
But things are a bit different when the hitter has to supply his own power rather than using the force created by the pitcher, as Vasquez showed twice Wednesday.
“Gabe Ruth” won the first knockout by a score of 4-3, and the second, 2-1. But both wins were as much about how they got to Vasquez as they were his big bat.
Ace Gary Grosjean (ND, 7-2) got the ball in the first game and was forced to pitch around a pair of sixth-inning errors. He did so, tossing a complete game while allowing four runs (two earned) and striking out six.
Not to be outdone, Shane Spencer (ND, 1-1) got the nod for game two and twirled his own complete game gem.
The Chukars entered the day having not seen their starters finish a game all season. They ended it having seen it twice in five hours — albeit seven-inning games, due to the doubleheader rules.
Both hurlers, though, departed the game with their team trailing.
Tyler Wyatt (9) and Trevor Rogers (10) provided the punch in game one, each homering to keep their team within striking distance, entering the seventh down, 4-2. And it was wildness from Ogden closer Nik Cardinal that loaded the bases and brought across the tying run — scoring when Cardinal hit Jacob Jablonski with a pitch.
Cardinal struck out Vasquez to end the threat, but it was Vasquez who got the last laugh.
Game two followed the same pattern: a Spencer masterpiece and six innings of a largely lethargic Idaho Falls offensive effort to bring the Chukars up, facing the league’s top closer, down by two.
This time, however, it was more than an Eddie Pelc sacrifice fly and and RBI hit batsman that tied it. The Chukars tied game two at 3-3 when Thomas McCaffrey sent a booming two-run homer (7) over the wall.
Once again, Cardinal got Vasquez to end the inning, only to see Vasquez play hero anyway.
McCaffrey knocked in all three runs in the second game, first on an RBI single in the fifth then his seventh-inning dinger.
Idaho Falls stumbled down the stretch of the first half, failing to secure a playoff spot that, at times, looked like a foregone conclusion. A big part of those struggles was the Raptors, who beat them six out of eight times between late-June and early-July.
Perhaps Vasquez’s power display Wednesday has finally exercised those demons. The same two teams will play again Thursday, with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
PBL second-half standings
T1. Idaho Falls Chukars (2-0)
T1. Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers (2-0)
T3. Colorado Springs Sky Sox (1-0)
T3. Great Falls Voyagers (1-0)
T3. Oakland Ballers (1-0)
T6. Billings Mustangs (0-0)
T6. Rocky Mountain Vibes (0-0)
T8. Boise Hawks (0-1)
T8. Glacier Range Riders (0-1)
T8. Missoula PaddleHeads (0-1)
T11. Grand Junction Jackalopes (0-2)
T12. Ogden Raptors (0-2)
