It was a tale of two halves in Thursday night’s game between the Riggers and Rockies at Webber Athletic Park. The Rockies jumped ahead 2-1 in the 3rd inning before adding another run in the 4th to make it 4-2 in their favor, but the wheels came off in the 5th inning when the Riggers scratched 3 runs across to take the lead and never looked back. The 12-6 final score was not as close as the game was, as the Rockies were threatening throughout the entire game, but could not come up with the timely hits when needed and ended up stranding a lot of runners.
Andrew Grieder (1-0) fought through some control issues and was only able to cover three innings in his start on Thursday night, but he battled hard enough to depart with a 3-2 lead before Brock Lenhardt entered and breezed through the 4th inning. Owen Steele (0-1) took over for the 5th inning but struggled to limit contact and ended up surrendering 3 runs on 5 hits in the inning. The big inning seemed to awaken the Riggers offense and they never turned it off after that point, piling on 8 more hits and 7 runs and taking sole possession of first place in the South Division with the win.
Rockies centerfielder Mike Goldade was the offensive standout in the contest going 3-3 with a double and two runs scored while adding two swipes to bring his team leading total to 8 on the year. Luke Wilson also made some noise with a monster solo shot to right field and continues to establish himself as a reliable force in the middle of the Rockies lineup.
The Rockies get to enjoy a hard-earned break in the schedule before hosting the cross-town rival Diamondbacks on July 7th at Webber Athletic Park, first pitch slated for 7:30pm.