Voyagers split doubleheader with Brewers

The Helena Brewers halted the Great Falls Voyagers’ four-game winning streak here at Centene Stadium on Saturday night, but the Voyagers bounced back nicely in the nightcap to settle the score.

Atop the Pioneer League North standings, the Brewers earned a 5-2 victory in Game 1 of Saturday’s twinbill before Great Falls pulled away in Game 2 with an 11-4 victory. Both games were seven-inning affairs as Friday’s game was postponed a day due to weather.

Great Falls is now 5-4 on the season while Helena moved to 6-2.

In Game 2, Great Falls managed six runs in the second after falling behind 2-0.

Sam Dexter’s triple to right field, aided by the wind and misplayed by Helena right fielder Demi Orimoloye, advanced Jackson Glines and Steve Pollakov across home. Mitch Roman, Alex Call, Brady Conlan and Anthony Villa all followed with hits as Great Falls batted around its lineup.

A solo homer from Helena’s Juan Ortiz in the third made it 6-3, and a Franly Mallen RBI double down the left field line sliced the Brewers’ deficit to 6-4, ending Aron McRee’s night on the mound for the Voyagers.

McRee surrendered four earned runs on seven hits, striking out two.

Following a Mitch Roman triple that bounced off the wall in right, Jameson Fisher scored the second baseman on a fielder’s choice as Great Falls regained its footing, 7-4. Villa’s double, which flew over the centerfielder’s head and caromed off the 415-feet wall straight away, scored Fisher as the Voyagers doubled up their opponent.

Steve Pollakov put the exclamation point on the win with a three-run shot in the sixth to make it 11-4.

Earlier in the night, in the top of the first inning in Game 1, after a wild pitch by Voyager starter Adam Panayotovich and an RBI single from Helena’s Ronnie Gideon, the Brewers built an early 2-0 advantage.

Frank Califano’s single in the second trimmed the deficit in half, but after Helena starter Michael Petersen loaded the bases with just one out, Great Falls stranded three baserunners.

Tommy Thompson’s club left nine runners on base in Game 1.

Califano (2 for 3) and Conlan (2-4) were the only Voyagers to register multiple-hit outings. Petersen and Trey Supak, who earned the win for Helena, combined to relinquish eight hits while striking out nine Great Falls batters.

Helena’s Demi Orimoloye widened his team’s cushion in the top of the fourth, when he demolished one to left field, hitting the Miller Lite billboard square on, for a two-run bomb and a 4-1 score.

Panayotovich’s second wild pitch of the game proved costly in the top of the sixth, giving the visitors a 5-2 lead.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound righty out of Palos Park, Ill., Panayotovich (4.50 ERA) went six innings before giving way to Michael Horejsei. Panayotovich fanned five, allowed four earned on six hits and fell to 0-2 on the season.

Clobbered by a pitch to open the bottom of the seventh, Alex Call took first base and advanced to second on a wild throw from Supak. A Villa single slipped past shortstop Jonathan Oquendo to put runners on the corners with one out. But Aaron Schnurbusch and Conlan both struck out to end the game.

Great Falls and Helena conclude their four-game series Sunday at 1 in the afternoon at Centene Stadium.