Off Night on Offense Sends Owlz to 0-2

GREAT FALLS, Mont. -- NoCo saw a starter who shoved and a slugger who stroked it for the cycle in its second-straight loss.

Great Falls' (2-0) Hunter Dollander (W, 1-0) diced up the Owlz (0-2) in his team's 4-2 win. Through seven sensational innings, he struck out four by throwing 68 percent of his pitches for strikes. He surrendered a single hit, which came right before he left the game. Dollander didn't allow any runs on his way to the second quality start by any Pioneer League pitcher this season.

The only other pitcher the Voyagers needed was Quincy Jones, who composed a quick finish. Neither Dollander nor Jones walked an Owlz batter Thursday night. The latter did allow a pair of runs, one earned, off a Danny Molinari sac fly in the bottom of the ninth, but that was the only damage done en route to a dub.

It was Riley Jepson who did most of the damage at the dish. Not only did he swat a second-inning single, let fly a fourth-inning dinger, sprint out a sixth-inning triple, and spank a seventh-inning double to go 4-for-4, but he also scored three of the Voyagers' four runs in the victory.

Eddie McCabe knocked Jepson in twice, giving the Great Falls shortstop his first two RBI of the young season. Andy Atwood and Zane Zurbrugg, each with a single and a double, round out the multi-hit performers for the home team.

For the visitors, it was an off night offensively with only three hits. They belonged to Molinari, Marshall Rich, and Brian Dansereau. They were all singles and they all came in the seventh inning or later, with NoCo trailing by four runs.

While not perfect, the pitching was not so much the problem. Alex Smith (L, 1-0) was no dominant Dollander, but he held his own in his first start since 2017, just the third one of his career. Across four innings of work, he struck out two batters, walked one, and allowed just one earned run, coming on the homer Jepson jacked.

Jesse Bolt, who relieved Smith in the fifth, gave up a game-high two earned runs. But even he had his moments. Take the fifth frame, for example, when he struck out Tyler Krabbe with runners on second and third to escape that inning unscathed. That strikeout was his only one on the night, compared to three walks.

Tyshaun Chapman and Gaylan Young combined for 2.2 innings to close it out, and they fanned five batters between them. They each dodged disaster to help strand 11 Great Falls batters on base.

The Owlz left only three men on base … but that's because hardly anyone reached base. And that was really the story in this one.

They'll be back in the box Friday night for one last game at Centene Stadium this season. The series finale from Great Falls is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.