OGDEN — The Ogden Raptors lost their previous two games because they gave up big, early leads. In order to make sure that didn't happen again, they scored seven runs in the first three innings en route to a 12-6 blowout of the Casper Rockies Thursday night.
Ogden racked up 15 hits after getting only seven the night before.
"It's nice to jump ahead of people and whack the ball around a bit," manager Lance Parrish said. "What a great feeling."
Thursday's game was only the sixth game this season that the Raptors did not commit an error even though Parrish has been preaching good defensive play to his team all season.
"(Error-free) games are huge with me," he said. "This is the first one in a while. I'd almost rather see that than anything, as long as we win."
Ogden starter Josh Wall went five innings and gave up only three runs to pick up the win.
He had missed his last start due to tightness in his shoulder, Parrish said.
"Josh played a good game after a start off," he said. "I was more worried about his shoulder."
Rick Taloa had two doubles, two singles and three RRIs for the Raptors, while Matt Berezay and John Martin also knocked in three runs apiece. Josh Bell also had two RBIs for Ogden.
Trailing 1-0 in the first, Berezay sent a 2-1 pitch over the left-center field wall for a three-run home run to start the Ogden rally. It was Berezay's fifth home run of the year. Taloa scored on a sacrifice fly later in the inning to give the Raptors a 4-1 lead.
Then in the third, Martin singled to right field with the bases loaded to score Taloa, Bell and D.J. Jackson and extend Ogden's lead to 7-1.
Steven Suarez hit a two-run homer for the Rockies in the fourth to cut the deficit to 7-3, but the Raptors scored twice in the bottom half of the inning to regain their six-run lead.
Ogden pushed one more run across in the sixth, only to see Suarez hit a his second home run of the game for the Rockies — a three-run shot to right — in the eighth to cut the Raptors' lead to 10-6. Taloa hit a two-run double in the ninth to make the score 12-6. The same two teams will square off again today at Lindquist Field starting at 7 p.m.
E-mail: bhinton@desnews.com