Pappas, Pinazzi power Chukars to win in Game 1 of PBL champs series

IDAHO FALLS — The Idaho Falls Chukars boast the Pioneer Baseball League’s top offense. The Oakland Ballers carry the league’s best pitching staff. Over the next six days, these two teams will attempt to answer the age-old question: What happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object?

Tuesday night at Melaleuca Field, the Chukars were able to force that Baller object just enough to win Game 1 of the PBL Championship Series, 5-3.

Things did not get off to the most promising of starts for Idaho Falls, though. Starter Nathan Shinn was tagged for three runs in the first two innings, while Oakland starter Reed Butz held the Chukars hitless through the third.

Things started to shake a bit in the home dugout when Benjamin Rosengard, the PBL’s batting champ, singled to start the fourth inning. The knock did not result in anything, as Oakland second baseman Daniel Harris IV turned in one of his several nifty defensive plays to start a twin-killing. But the single sent a message to the Chukar offense.

“We didn’t have a hit through the first three innings and Rosey gets that hit, everybody in the dugout goes, ‘OK, we can hit this guy,'” manager Troy Percival said after the game. “Once you get that first hit, then you get that first run, we have a tendency to flow right through.”

The Chukars did break that scoring seal in the fifth, on a bit of outstanding base running from Simon Baumgardt.

At third following a lead-off double and one-out Jacob Jablonski single, Baumgardt got a perfect read on a 2-0 breaking ball and scored on a wild pitch that skipped no further than 10 feet from the catcher.

The mood in the dugout ticked up again, Percival said, but there still wasn’t a lot of positive energy as the potent Chukar offense was still being held in check by stifling Oakland pitching.

That is until catcher Johnny Pappas launched a game-tying two-run homer to straight-away left with no one out in the sixth.

Pappas, after watching the ball for the first few steps out of the box, looked into his dugout to offer some encouragement. He said he doesn’t often hit them long enough to turn away, but he knew this fly ball was ticketed for Iona Street.

“I hit that ball and I knew it was tied ballgame,” Pappas said. “I looked in there and, man, that was energy city.”

Percival described a very noticeable emotion shift in the dugout.

“The dugout wasn’t dead, but there wasn’t much life either,” he said. “They got up, and they stayed up the rest of the way.”

The Chukars added another run in the sixth when Spencer Rich doubled in Rosengard. Rich was involved again in the eighth, doubling and scoring an insurance run on a Baumgardt RBI double.

Rich finished the night with a pair of doubles, a run and an RBI. Rosengard and Baumgardt also had two hits apiece, matching Oakland’s T.J. McKenzie and Esai Santos.

While the offense came alive, though, Pappas said that the comeback and eventual win was triggered through the resolve of Shinn.

The lefty, despite being hit hard early and having been taxed for more than 60 pitches in the first two innings, keptp the ball until the fifth.

“He was a really important piece to this,” Pappas said of Shinn. “I know he gave up the three runs early, but he gave us two zeroes back-to-back there, and that’s not easy to do, especially against that team. He gave us a chance to get back in that ballgame.”

Percival was forced to weight the cost-benefit of pulling Shinn early after the laborious two innings to start the series. The skipper chose to keep Shinn in, and was rewarded with two “huge” frames, he said.

“It didn’t go according to plan, but he just said, ‘The next pitch is the most important pitch,'” Pappas added.

When the Chukar bullpen finally did enter the fray, to start the fifth, they did what they have done so often over the past month and, as Percival said, “rolled zeroes.”

It wasn’t pretty, the manager said, with Julien Hernandez and Ryan Faulks walking three between them, while recording just four outs.

“But zeroes are zeroes, and we’ll take ’em,” Percival said.

Due to the command issues, Percival was forced to go to closer Nicolo Pinazzi with one down in the seventh.

The hard-throwing lefty went the rest of the way, striking out five while allowing just one base runner — on a hit by pitch.

“Nico’s been unreal out of the bullpen for us the past month-and-a-half,” Pappas said.

Percival agreed with his catcher.

“He can pitch at any level,” Percival said of Pinazzi. “You put him into a Big League game, with what he’s doing right now, he’s going to get people out. He’s that good.”

The manager went on to say that he would have rather not needed to use Pinazzi for eight outs, likely making him unavailable for Wednesday’s Game 2.

“This is the time of the year when, you put your best guy out there,” Percival said. “You do what you do to get a win — deal with tomorrow tomorrow.”

The goal for the first two games, Percival said, was to win at least one game. Then they would have a chance to claim the PBL title by taking two of three in Oakland with their top three starters lined up.

“Winning one here and then getting to go there with our 1-2-3, I like our chances,” he said.

Now, the Chukars can go for the jugular, with lefty Connor Harrison scheduled to get the ball for Game 2. He will likely face Oakland ace Noah Millikan. The matchup makes Harrison the potential X-factor for Idaho Falls. If he is able to match zeroes with Millikan, Harrison would put his squad in prime position.

Despite the excitement of what is to come following Tuesday’s win, Pappas said the job now is for his Chukars to remain focused on the next game, next inning, next pitch.

“Wherever our feet are, we need to be in that moment,” he said.