NoCo Couldn't Convert Late, Lost Series Finale

GREELEY, Colo. -- For most of Sunday's series finale, the Owlz would not go away, but Billings eventually put them away after capitalizing on the Owlz failing to convert crucial chances.

The Mustangs (5-7) scored a crooked nuber in three of the final four innings. In that same stretch, the Owlz (6-5) left four runners stranded in scoring position. Three of them got stranded on third base.

That disparity made the difference.

Both starting pitchers looked uncommonly crisp considering Sunday was the sixth and final game of the series. Relievers yielded 10 of the 13 runs in the game, also allowing 17 of the 26 hits.

On the Mustangs side, starter Kelvan Pilot (W, 5-3) navigated things. Pilot's starts sandwiched the series. In his second one on Sunday, he went 5.1 innings and struck out six. Pilot did walk five Owlz though, and he gave up two earned runs on four hits.

As for the Owlz, Austin Schneider sustained solid stuff in his spot start. The fireballer from Fort Worth fanned five compared to a pair of walks. He allowed five hits in his four innings. 

The inning his outing ended, Billings pinned a run on his final line. Granted, it did go down as unearned.

The Mustangs leadoff man singled, spelling the end of Schneider's start. C.J. Grant-DeBose (L, 0-1) immediately induced a double play in his stead. The leadoff man moved to third, though, and when a throwing error failed to end the inning, he scored to put his club ahead 1-0.

The Owlz responded with the weirdest run they've scored all season. 

Cameron Phelts also reached as the leadoff man during that fourth inning. He walked, and then he scurried over to third on a single by Euro Diaz.

When Marshall Rich tried a squeeze bunt, it looked like trouble. Rich popped it up, but Pilot played it poorly and let it go over his head. So it went down as a hit in the infield, and Phelts came in to score the tying run. 

These two teams tacked on a ton of runs over the next two innings. Nine of them, to be exact, and six of those belonged to Billings.

The Mustangs started the sixth-inning scoring with a homer, their ninth of the series. They scored one more in the sixth, and the Owlz answered with one of their own. Kevin Higgins scored on Phelts' fielder's choice in the bottom half. Despite leaving Phelts on third base, the Owlz cut the Mustang lead to one.

But the seventh inning decided things. Billings bashed six hits - hard hits, all of them - and scored four runs in the process. 

NoCo compiled a couple runs that frame too, but seven-pitch battle of an at-bat ended in a strikeout, stranding runners on second and third. 

Billings ballooned the lead to 9-4 after top nine, when they plated another pair of insurance runs. Beaux Bonvillain (S, 1) bought himself a six-out save by striking out the side in the ninth. In fact, five of the six outs he got came by way of the K, giving Bonvillain five of the Mustangs' 12 total strikeouts on the afternoon.

Higgins, Diaz, and Phelts collectively struck out twice while collectively conking nine of NoCo's 11 hits. Higgins hacked three on Sunday for his ninth three-hit game this season. It tied two Mustangs for the game-high mark. Diaz and Phelts each etched a pair of pokes. Both have now banked more than a Baker's dozen multi-hit games this season.

Despite the defeat, the Owlz won four of the six games in the inter-division set, taking their first series since the first week of June.

That means they've earned their Monday off day. NoCo gets back to action in Colorado Springs starting on Tuesday. Game one of another six-game series in Springs is set to start at 6:30 p.m. that evening.