GJ Rockies Win Their First PBL Championship

Grand Junction Rockies Win Their First PBL Championship

Truly the team to be named later, the upstart Grand Junction Rockies staggered the defending champion Missoula Paddleheads 10-4 last night at Missoula’s Ogden Park at Allegiance Field to capture their first Pioneer Baseball League championship in 41 years with a two-game sweep.

“This team battled all year,” said Rockies first year manager and former MLB pitcher, Bobby Jenks.  “We got off to a slow start but after the first month we came together.  These guys gave it all they had, and it paid off in the end.”

This summer, the Rockies, owned by the Colorado Rockies owner, Dick Monfort, announced the sale of the team to the Northern Colorado Owlz ownership group, including famed Hollywood producer/director Mike Tollin (“The Captain”, “The Last Dance”).  The new ownership group, scheduled to take control of the team in October, announced they would rename the team prior to the 2023 season.

In a taut battle early on, the Paddleheads began the scoring with Jayson Newman singling home Brandon Riley in the first. After Grand Junction tied the game on Alex Nielsen’s sacrifice fly, the Paddleheads went back in front in the third and fourth on an RBI single from Lamar Sparks and a solo home run by Keaton Greenwalt.

Grand Junction answered in the fifth, grabbing a 4-3 lead after an RBI single from Jordan Fitzpatrick and an RBI double by Tyler Sandoval. Nielsen drove in Sandoval with his second sac fly of the day.

Missoula responded with a game-tying homer from Gatewood in the bottom of the fifth, but the Rockies fired back in the sixth on a Jaylen Hubbard RBI double.

In the top of the eighth, Missoula’s defense weakened. 

Third baseman Cameron Thompson’s bases loaded throwing error opened the floodgates for three insurance runs, as Nielsen followed with a two-run single to give himself four RBIs on the night.

In the ninth, Shawn Ross put the game out of reach with a solo homer before Grand Junction scored another unearned run on an error by McClain O’Connor.

The combination of Ian Kahaloa, Hunter Schilperoot, Ibarra, and Reynolds combined to throw 4 ⅔ shutout innings in relief. Reynolds got Kameron Willman to ground out to Hubbard for the final out.

Grand Junction finished second by 3 games to the Ogden Raptors in the PBL’s Southern Division first half but put together a league-best 36-11 to win the second half title.  They defeated Ogden in the Divisional Playoffs two games to one before their Championship Series sweep in Missoula.

And now Grand Junction, having previously won the Pioneer League title in 1981 as the Butte Copper Kings, will go into the off-season with a new ownership team at the helm and a new team name to kick off a new era in Grand Junction baseball.