Villa Turns In Dominant Effort In 6-0 Win Over Range Riders
Home Runs From Fogel & Navarro Highlight Win Over Glacer
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
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0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 0 |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
FLATHEAD VALLEY, MT- The Missoula PaddleHeads opened the 2nd half of the Pioneer League season Tuesday night in their first appearance on the road opposite the Glacier Range Riders. Missoula will make a habit of playing at Glacier Bank Park in the 2nd half with this being the 1st of 12 games to be played at this ballpark. Missoula would turn to their opening day starter Alfredo Villa in a battle with a team that will also be headed for the league playoffs come September. After finding his form in his last 2 outings of the first half, Villa would have a start to remember to open the 2nd half.
The 2023 league pitcher of the year would throw nearly 70% of his pitches for strikes over 8 shutout innings Tuesday keeping the Glacier lineup in check throughout. Villa would be the 1st PaddleHeads starter this season to make it through 8 innings. After Villa allowed 2 base runners in the 9th, Ethan Swanson would have Villa's back striking out the side to ensure no runs would cross the plate. A pair of home runs would tell the rest of the story as Missoula picked up its 2nd shutout win of the season in a 6-0 victory over Glacier.
After allowing a base hit to the 1st batter in the 1st inning, Villa would retire the next 10 batters consecutively in a stretch from the 1st through the 3rd inning. The Arizona native would also retire 7 consecutively from the 5th through the 8th inning. When the dust settled Villa would allow 5 hits over 8 innings of work striking out 9 batters over those frames. The 2nd year PaddleHead has seen Missoula find the win column in each of his last 3 outings.
Over Villa's last 19 innings (3 starts) the Adams State product has allowed only 3 runs.Villa holds a 3-0 record in those starts to go along with a 0.95 ERA. The flamethrower has also struckout 24 batters in those starts while walking only 6. Villa would receive all the support he would need from one swing in the early innings.
After Missoula's offense would see only 1 man reach in the first, Missoula would immediately mount a threat in the 2nd. After the first man of the inning reached on an error, Collin Runge would hit a double to the wall in left. Cameron Thompson would then reach to load the bases for Luis Navarro. The 2nd year PaddleHead had been swinging a hot bat coming in, and that would show with his effort in the bases loaded situation.
Navarro hit a line drive just to the left of the foul pole in right field for a grand slam in the 2nd giving Missoula a 4-0 advantage. Navarro would finish his night 2-for-4 at the plate with 4 RBIs and a run scored. These types of efforts have become routine over his last 5 games.
Navarro has finished with 2 hits or more in each of his last 5 games played. The 2nd year PaddleHead holds a .500 batting average in that time with 3 doubles and a pair of home runs. Navarro has also tallied RBIs in 6 straight games finishing with 13 driven in during that span. The other contributor offensively would be the Pioneer League's most feared hitter Adam Fogel.
The PaddleHeads left fielder would hit his 24th home run of the season to right center in the 9th inning to give Missoula a 6-run cushion. Fogel has tallied 11 home runs over his last 12 games played. The 1st year professional also continues to lead the league in batting average (.449), home runs, and RBIs (77). All of this production has also come in just 44 games overall for Missoula. Fogel finished 2-for-4 Tuesday.
After Villa departed with 2 base runners on in the 9th Swanson would only allow 1 hit before recording the final out in a scoreless 9th inning striking out the side. It marked the 7th time this season Swanson has recorded all 3 outs in an inning via the strikeout. The Oklahoma native has struck out 42 in 26 ⅓ innings to this point this season. The performances on the mound combined with success with the long ball proved to provide Missoula with an outstanding effort to open the 2nd half of the season.
The PaddleHeads (38-11) will look to keep it rolling on the road in game 2 of the series opposite the Range Riders (29-20). Action from Glacier Bank Park is set to begin at 7:05 p.m. Keep in touch with all the action from the Flathead Valley on ESPN Missoula 102.9 F.M. and 102espn.com.
