Owlz Sweep Homer-Happy Double-Header with Walkoff Wins

GREELEY, Colo. -- Saturday saw the sweetest of sweeps: two walkoff wins.

And it means something sweeter: the Owlz have won their first series since the first week of June. 

Hurlers hummed a heck of a lot of strikes. Hitters had a homer-happy day. 

It was a hoot. Here's how it all went down …

Game One

One of the reigning Pioneer League Pitchers of the Week ran this game early on, but one of the reigning Hitters of the Week wound up walking it off.

Alex Jackson walloped the walkoff homer to put the Owlz (5-4) above .500 in the second half. After snapping a seven-game hit streak on Friday, Jackson came back with the clutch bomb, the deciding solo shot. It became his seventh homer of the season, extending his team lead in long balls. 

It ended a game where Mustangs (4-5) starter Elijah Gill's skill shined. A week after winning the league's weekly award, the southpaw spun 5.1 innings of one-run ball against the Owlz. Gill gave up four walks while striking out three, needing 95 pitches to do it.

Not necessarily his most exceptional outing, but it was efficient. That word's a good one to describe Preston Snavely's start too.

Snavely survived five or more innings for the third time in a row and fifth time this season overall. To be specific, he used 82 pitches to go 5.2 innings. The FoCo kid compiled a K count of six, at the same time allowing seven hits. By surrendering just two earned runs, Snavely needed just one more out for a quality start. 

His contribution was quality nonetheless. The solid start kept NoCo in the game and carried the club to its eventual chance at home run heroics. 

That and the timely two-run spurt in the sixth, of course. 

Gill was still going strong when that inning started, but Brandon Crosby coaxed a leadoff walk. Kevin Higgins helped him move up with a right-center single. Matt Turner caromed a comebacker off the pitcher's glove, and when the pitcher threw the ball away trying to recover, Crosby came around to score. After that, NoCo newbie Dakota Popham put up his first RBI as an Owl with a sac fly that tied the game and gave way to the walkoff opportunity.

Aside from the starters, no pitcher got more than two outs. On the Owlz side, Chase Wilkerson, Noah Parsons, and Isaiah Ramos (W, 1-0) took the torch and took this one to the end. The trio tossed out 1.1 innings of shutout stuff. Collectively, they walked just one batter and allowed zero hits. 

Pitchers pounded the zone, Jackson pummeled the gut punch, and the Owlz pulled ahead late. It pulled them one step closer to claiming the series for themselves.

Game Two

One walkoff belonged to one of the hottest hitters in the league. The next belonged to a guy who, entering Saturday, hadn't played for almost a week.

That fact made Cameron Phelts' flick of the wrist feel even more impactful. 

Then again, Phelts' presence pretty much always feels impactful. You could first feel it when he entered Game Two as an Owlz (6-4) defensive replacement. Phelts sacrificed his body for a clutch diving catch in a close game. 

It got that way because Billings (4-7) closed the gap late. 

More on that later. First, let's talk taters.

After entering Saturday with the lowest home run total of any team in the league, the birds bopped three in Game Two. Turner tagged two of them for the first multi-homer game by any Owl this year. 

But it was the homer Popham pimped that gave the visitors deja vu. In the bottom of the seventh, NoCo having just given up its lead, the colorful Coloradoan conked his first PBL homer in emphatic fashion.

When he did, he tied the game 5-5. Marshall Rich ripped a single into right field the next at-bat. Phelts followed up with a flare that found the left-center gap and gave Rich the right to score game-winning run number two.

These two teams tanked five homers between them. Of the 11 runs in this game, six of them came by way of the big fly. 

But that doesn't particularly mean it was a poor pitching day. Each starter went four innings. For NoCo, Colton Williams winged a pair of punch outs and allowed three earned runs. 

Billings bashed both of its homers off the long-armed lefty, but he only surrendered three hits outside of those solo shots. Williams never let it get to the point where the Owlz appeared out-muscled.

In fact, he had the lead when he left. William Kirwan came on in relief to make his NoCo debut. He got four outs for his staff, including his first Pioneer League strikeout. Wilkerson worked another two outs of his own, once again playing a match and one again coming out on top.

Then, Kyle Adkins appeared in a save situation and sandwiched a walk between two quick outs. One of those was Phelts' phenomenal catch.

After that, though, the Mustangs mounted a 5-4 lead. Adkins allowed a single and another walk before his day ended. Ramos (W, 2-0) relieved him, but he surrendered a single that scored two runs, both attributed to Adkins. 

Ramos got the next guy out to finish the inning. By doing so, the crafty Californian completed his own sweep, earning both wins on this wild day.

After the day that was, the Owlz are one series richer, winning their first one since they wrecked Rocky Mountain way back in early June. 

And because the Vibes were a very different team back then, taking this series against an established squad conjures a lot of confidence from this group. 

Both series wins came at home, and that's where this series will finish tomorrow. It will also finish the Owlz tenure at Jackson Field. Sunday's scuffle closes out the Greeley chapter of the Owlz inaugural season.

Here's to hammering out one more win to send off Jackson Field in style. Sunday's first pitch is at for 1:05 p.m.

See you then!