SPORTS

Voyagers struggle at the plate in loss

Grady Higgins

A tough outing in the batter’s box and a burst of offense from the Missoula Osprey were enough to put the Great Falls Voyagers down Sunday afternoon at Centene Stadium.

The Voyagers (31-35) were only able to tally three hits as they fell to the Osprey (39-27) 7-1, snapping a two-game winning streak.

Great Falls left fielder Landon Lassiter said that the Voyagers had a good day swinging the bat but were having a hard time catching a break.

“We had hit a lot of balls hard that were right at their guys,” Lassiter said. “That’s baseball for you.”

Sunday’s output by the Voyagers was a far cry from Saturday’s contest against Missoula, in which Great Falls put up 11 runs on 15 hits.

“On Saturday our ground balls were finding the holes and today they just weren’t,” said Voyagers’ manager Cole Armstrong. “When you play this game every day things sometimes won’t go your way.”

Another source of Great Falls’ troubles at the plate came at the hands of Osprey starting pitcher Cameron Smith, who cruised through six innings, allowing only one hit and one walk, both of which came in the first inning. Smith (6-1) also struck out four batters on his way to earning the victory for Missoula.

Voyagers’ manager Cole Armstrong said that Smith did a great job of keeping Great Falls on its heels and kept its hitters guessing.

“I give all the credit in the world to their guy on the mound,” said Armstrong. “Mostly what (Smith) did was keep us off balance. He was throwing his breaking ball at a couple different speeds and he stayed ahead in the count. He threw a heck of a game out there.”

After the bottom of the first, no Voyager got on base against Smith, aside from shortstop Grant Massey who reached first on a ground ball through the legs of Missoula shortstop Isan Diaz.

Voyagers’ left fielder Landon Lassiter said that sometimes when a pitcher is in a groove, there’s not much a hitter can do.

“Smith is just one of those crafty lefties,” Lassiter said. “He throws off your timing with his off-speed stuff and puts the ball where he wants it. You just have to tip your hat to a guy sometimes.”

It was a bit of a rougher go on the hill for Great Falls’ starter Tanner Banks (4-5), who surrendered five runs on 10 hits in six innings pitched.

Four of Banks’ five earned runs came in a third inning in a rally sparked by Jason Morozowski’s two-out solo home run for the Osprey. Missoula was able to put up three more runs in the frame on RBI doubles from Austin Byler and Raymel Flores.

Armstrong, however, said that despite the third inning, Banks did a good job of keeping his squad in the game.

“Banks is a guy that has been a guy that has been giving us a consistent effort every time he hits the mound and I don’t think tonight was any exception,” Armstrong said. “He did a good job of coming back out there after that one tough inning and gave us some quality pitching. He kept us in the game because when he left we were still in striking distance, which is all that you can ask from your starters.

Banks said that he also felt pretty good about the day’s start but that there are always one or two pitches that one wishes they could have back.

“I felt like everything I was throwing was working well for me out there, but I just let a few hang out over the plate that ended up costing me,” Banks said. “It’s just a game of highs and lows and you just got to try to stay in the middle to avoid crashing. You just have to have a short memory and get back on the horse and focus on getting better every game.”

The Voyagers lone run came in the bottom of the seventh, with Lassiter driving in first baseman Sikes Orvis.

The rally would end there, however, and the Osprey padded its lead with three more runs, highlighted by a two-run homer by Flores in the top of the eighth. Flores led the way in the box for Missoula, finishing 4 for 4 with three RBIs.

The loss puts the Voyagers into a tie with the Billings Mustangs for a wild-card slot in the Pioneer League playoffs with only eight games left in the regular season. Armstrong said that while his team is aware of the ramifications of every game in this portion of the year, it is not the group’s primary focus.

“It’s crunch-time,” Armstrong said. “We realistically can’t afford to lose another game at this point. While we know the stakes are high in the back of our minds, we just have to go out there and take it game by game.”

The Voyagers continue their series with the Osprey in Missoula on Tuesday at 7 p.m.