Mighty Mo’ Slams Glacier to Knockout Round Victory

Flathead Valley, MT. – The Glacier Range Riders (30-45, 12-15 second half) were powered to a big knockout round victory on Thursday night over the Boise Hawks (23-53, 6-21 second half). With the score tied 3-3 after nine innings, each team got a chance to send one batter out for five swings to hit as many home runs as possible. After Boise batter Abraham Gil came up empty, Livingston Morris sent his first swing way beyond the fence, but foul. His second pitch was very far and very fair to send the Flathead Faithful home happy.

The night started innocent enough for the Range Rider offense who got off to a 1-0 lead after a Ryan Cash RBI single brought across David Kyriacou. Boise answered in the next half inning with a bases loaded two-run knock that put the Hawks in front by a score of 2-1. It didn't take long for Glacier to rip right back, though, with two more runs in the bottom half of the frame including a double from Kyriacou that scored Ryan Cole, and a Ben McConnell single that made it 3-2 Riders. The final score of regulation came in the top of the fifth off a solo home run for the Hawks.

Joey Hennessey pitched a scoreless seventh in his Range Riders debut, while Isaiah Henry sent down three Hawks via the K in the eighth, and Justin Coleman threw a blank in the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, the Riders came up a few feet wide of winning the game in regulation when Cole hammered a ball down the left field line that was deemed to have gone foul. Instead, we went to a knockout round.

Gil led off the extra inning alternative with a lazy fly ball to center field, three grounders, and a fly ball to left that one hopped to the warning track, but with zero homers, all Morris would need is one to surpass the fence to give Glacier the win. The entirety of the Flathead Faithful thought Morris did just that on swing number one, but, like Cole's big slam, it was deemed to be foul. A quick recalibration allowed Morris to hone in on fair territory where he would not miss again, hammered a ball way beyond the trees in left field to give Glacier the win.

The Riders and Hawks play again tomorrow night at Flathead Field where Glacier will rep their Jammer reds for the second to last time this season. First pitch is at 7:05 PM, tickets can be bought at https://ridgerunbaseball.ticketsocket.com/#/event-list or in-person at the Flathead Field box office starting at 5:30 PM.