Raptors V Range Riders Game 3

Ogden, UT

In a magical Thursday night contest at Lindquist Field, and for the first time in their 31 year history, the Raptors secured a no hitter, posting their most dominant performance to date in their 93rd contest of the year. Right from the start tonight the lineup took their advances with a Cole Jordan solo shot (7) and spent the rest of the night nursing the lead and letting the pitching staff go to work. Mitch Stone started the game off and had a steady mix of control and chaos throughout the night. Despite walking five and hitting three batters, Mitch’s situational pitching and strikeout stuff led him to working through five innings of action, striking out seven, consistently finding his way around unfavorable jams and keeping Glacier off of the scoreboard and more importantly out of the hit column. Mitch handed it over to Shawn Triplett and he let it fly, tossing hitless frames in the sixth and seventh innings, punching three batters' tickets, slicing through the heart of the Range Riders order two times. With Triplett preserving the no hitter through the seventh frame, skipper Evan Parker opted to bring in the flamethrowing southpaw arm of Cameron Edmonson to work through the eighth inning and work he did, striking out two of the three batters he faced, walking two batters, all while managing to keep Glacier out of the hit column. The Raptors half of the eighth saw them play host to a five run inning, topped off with Chris Sargent’s seventeenth homer of the year, to drive the game to an eight to nothing tune. In the Range Riders final turn at bat, Dylan Matsuoka came in tasked with shutting the door and securing the historic milestone, which is exactly what he would do. On his fourteenth and final pitch of the ballgame, he struck out Christian Kirtley at the plate to lock down the combined no hit bid, charting history for the Raptors. A storied franchise with eleven division titles, two league championships, four fifty+ win seasons, and now, for the first time in franchise history, the Raptors have secured a no hitter with this incredible game three performance. Hard to back up a showing like that, but the Raptors will be looking to make it three straight wins tomorrow night facing off in game four, starting at 6:30 PM at Lindquist Field.