Owlz Light It Up Amid Lightning, Leave with Second-Straight Win

GREELEY, Colo. -- Brilliance on the bump and winning battles in the box carried NoCo to consecutive wins.

After going nearly the whole second half of June without a 10-hit game, the Owlz (15-19) have now notched four in a row. With exactly 10 against Ogden (20-17), NoCo is averaging 12 hits a game since July 2.

Owlz starter Will Buraconak (W, 2-1) burned batters he faced all throughout Wednesday, but especially the first time through Ogden's order. In fact, no Raptor reached base through three innings.

When one of them did, Buraconak surrendered a semi-sharp grounder to shortstop. It was a hit, but it was harmless. Four batters later, the southpaw starter had induced three fly balls to spoil any spark it could've possibly generated.

And you know what's better than Buraconak bullying batters up and down the order? The fact he got to do it with an almost immediate lead.

Kevin Higgins hammered his first home run at home in the home half of the first. After Brandon Crosby cranked a double on the first pitch he saw, Higgins homered two at-bats later for the first two runs of the game. The Owlz led 2-0 after the opening inning.

That lead grew fuller in the fourth. Zach West drew a one-out walk, Marshall Rich ripped a base hit, and Alex Jackson drove in West with his second single of the day. Jackson's action gave the Owlz a three-run lead.

So through four innings, the Owlz showed electric energy. Unfortunately, Mother Nature showed the same thing, and the game got paused due to lightning.

No big deal, though. Just a 30 minute delay. And all it really delayed was more dealing by Buraconak.

The lefty left two fifth-inning batters looking and coaxed a third to fly out to center field for one of Cameron Phelts' six putouts in the game. (More on those plays in a bit).

In the sixth, Ogden opened up the scoring, plating a pair of runs after two hits to lead off the inning.

That two-spot spelled the end of Buraconak's day, but his day was a dandy. He allowed five hits through his 5.1 innings and didn't walk a single batter. Of the 22 batters Buraconak saw, seven of them struck out. Three of them went down looking.

So the starter stole the show, but the relievers deserve a special spot in the ending credits too. Kyle Adkins appeared in relief of Buraconak and threw 1.2 shimmering innings, striking out two and walking one.

Austin Schneider spelled Adkins with spotless stanza of his own. By contributing a scoreless inning on Wednesday, Schneider's up to 7.0 scoreless innings in a row, his longest stretch of the season.

Neither Adkins nor Schneider allowed a hit.

By the time Christian Griffin (S, 2) came on in the ninth, the Owlz had added two more insurance runs.

Phelts fired off a leadoff triple in the sixth, his fourth three-bagger this season. West whipped up a sac fly a couple at-bats later, scoring Phelts in a response to the Raptors runs earlier that inning.

Then, in the seventh, Crosby conked a single to center, stole second base, and scored on Tim Bouchard's back-up-the-middle liner, making the Owlz lead 5-2.

Griffin gave up a couple runs, only one of which was earned, but he still retired enough Raptors in the ninth to earn his second save in as many games.

Pitching prevailed. Offense outworked. But the defense deserves its due credit too.

This is the part where we fan out about Phelts. Right before the lightning delay, the center fielder felt out a fly ball to center. In doing so, he stumbled, losing both his footing and his glove. He never lost sight of the ball, though, and without a glove, Phelts felt the sting of a searing flyout in his bare palm.

He made that catch with no glove, guys. You ever seen that legendary Kevin Mitchell grab? Look it up. That's how it looked.

Phelts made a phenomenal diving catch too, sustaining that suffocating defense he's shown since day one.

A complete showing from this squad supplied a second-straight dub. And with the first-half playoff push underway, this group's gonna need some more of them.

Their next chance? Tomorrow. And, actually, make that chances. The Owlz and Raptors meet for their first of two double-headers in this series. First pitch from game one is set for 1:05 p.m. at Jackson Field. The second game will start about 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.