Fourth Inning Provides Pitfall and Not Enough Hits Fall in Owlz Loss

JOHNSTOWN, Colo. -- Aside from a single inning, the Owlz pitching provided enough of a push, but a lack of balance from the bats brought with it the Owlz third-straight loss.

Remove the fourth inning and NoCo (8-11) starter Kida De La Cruz (L, 2-5) compiled a pretty nice stat line in his squad's 6-1 loss. Of his six earned runs allowed, four came in that frame. So did two of his four walks. 

Granted, even if you remove that fourth inning, the Owlz offense still didn't do enough for a dub. 

After eight-straight games with 10 or more hits, NoCo collected just five in Wednesday's loss. They put together back-to-back hits just once, in the sixth. That's the only inning the birds with the bats banked multiple hits.

De La Cruz exited after that sixth inning. From there, CJ Grant-DeBose and Christian Griffin took the torch and tacked on an additional six strikeouts. Grant-DeBose even struck out the side in the eighth.

In all, NoCo rung up 12 Rockies (15-5). That marks this staff's highest strikeout total since De La Cruz's last start back on July 29, the one that won him a Pioneer League Pitcher of the Week award.

But in Wednesday's fourth inning, De La Cruz could not find that finesse.

After a leadoff single, the starter stung three batters with a bean ball and gave up those two aforementioned free passes. Of the four fourth-inning Rockies RBI, two came from walks and another came off a hit by pitch. The fourth came off a fielder's choice.

At that point, Grand Junction led 6-0. 

The home team hung a number on the scoreboard in the sixth. Abdel Guadalupe led it off with a soft single to center, just NoCo's third hit of the game to that point. He and Tim Bouchard teamed up for a terrific hit-and-run that moved Guadalupe to third. The Puerto Rican pranced home after a 1-4-3 double play the next at-bat.

No RBI, but a run nonetheless. It turned out to be all the Owlz offense could hang its hat on.

Two hitters can hang their hats on a two-hit game, though. Guadalupe logged at least a pair of pokes for the fifth time in his eight games with NoCo. He also scored his team's only run on Wednesday. Bouchard brought home the other multi-hit game, his third in a row. Over those three games, the third baseman's bashed nine hits. 

Worth mentioning: Brandon Crosby cracked his 18th double of the year on Wednesday. While it was the Owlz only extra-base hit, it ties Crosby with Ty Lews for the team lead in doubles. They've each etched 18 doubles so far this season.

Five hits for NoCo. Six hits for Grand Junction.

That failure to fire strikes in the fourth inning may have ultimately been the Owlz downfall, but a failure to fire off consistent hits ultimately provided the Owlz with their newest losing streak.

The red hot Rockies return to Nelson Farm Park for the third game of this six-game set. Alex Smith, once an Owlz, is set to square off with Preston Snavely in Thursday's throwdown.

Here's to a higher hit total than the one we saw Wednesday.

First pitch in game three is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. See you then!