Extra-innings win puts Boise Hawks into Pioneer League championship series this week
The Boise Hawks had one more rally in them Saturday, one that lifted them into the Pioneer League championship series.
Boise rallied from a 5-0 deficit after two innings to top the Ogden Raptors 8-7 in 12 innings in the Pioneer League South Division one-game playoff in Utah. The victory sends Boise (49-47) to the three-game series for the independent league’s title.
Game 1 is at 7:15 p.m. Monday in Missoula against the Paddleheads (66-31) before heading to Boise’s Memorial Stadium for the decisive Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) on Wednesday and Thursday.
Columbia High grad and former Northwest Nazarene pitcher Zach Penrod (3-4, 5.66 ERA) will start Game 1 for Boise. Mitch Lines (7-3, 5.64 ERA) and Jayce Vancena (7-2, 5.84 ERA) are slated to pitch the games in Boise, respectively.
Saturday’s one-game playoff marked the first extra-innings game of the Pioneer League season. The league instituted a home-run derby to settle tie games during the regular season. With no such dramatics for the playoffs, Boise created its own drama by rallying to force extra innings after the early deficit.
The Hawks and Raptors (54-42) traded runs in the 10th before Roby Enriquez drove in the game-winning run with a bloop single to left-center field in the 12th inning. Enriquez finished Saturday 3-for-6 with a home run and four RBIs.
Lines then recorded the save in his first relief appearance of the season, inducing a pair of ground balls with two runners on to cap a 5-hour, 3-minute game.
Saturday’s win marked a continued turnaround for Boise, which went 20-28 in the first half of the season before rallying to win the South Division in the second half with a 28-19 record. That sent Boise to the postseason for the first time since 2014, when it was an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs in the Northwest League.
Boise joined the independent Pioneer League this season after five losing seasons as a Colorado Rockies affiliate. The coronavirus pandemic canceled the 2020 season, and Major League Baseball contracted its minor leagues and booted the Hawks out from under its umbrella after 30 years.
The Hawks last reached a league championship series in 2013, and they last won a league title in 2004.
This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 1:20 PM.
