Stellar Pitching Pushes Vibes Over Jackalopes

Hudson Ridley

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. When the Rocky Mountain Vibes and the Grand Junction Jackalopes meet it's usually anything but normal. However, today's matchup was a bit different. The Vibes took care of business against the Jackalopes, beating Grand Junction 10-2.

What separated both sides was the difference in pitching. Zach Ottinger got the start for the Vibes and had a bit of a roller coaster outing. Ottinger allowed a few base runners in the first frame, with one coming around to score on an errant throw to second attempting to catch Jaylen Hubbard stealing.

After that, Ottinger was all business. The right hander put up a line of 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 5 BB, 4 K. That stellar performance led to Ottinger earning the Whataburger player of the game.

Although the Vibes pitching was top notch, only allowing three hits all game, the batting was just as good. Rocky Mountain has scored double digit runs in three of its last four games, including 10 tonight. Brandon Crosby had the Vibes only home run of the day. Blasting a ball to dead center he drove in Matt Hogan gave the Vibes a 9-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth. 

With this win the Vibes clinched the series over the Jackalopes, and also set a season low of hits allowed with three.

Rocky Mountain and Grand Junction face off again tomorrow for the final game of this series at 6:35 p.m. mountain time.