Salt Lake 13, Pocatello 3
The Trappers reached the summit Saturday night.
The going was a bit rockier than expected, but in scaling to what ended up an easy 13-3 victory over the Pocatello Giants at Derks Field, the Traps ascended to a plateau that will not likely be reached again for quite a while.
The top – a professional baseball record 28 consecutive victories – has been looming in front of this remarkable team since July 16 in Idaho Falls, when they obliterated the Pioneer League mark of 19 straight wins. And after overcoming a nasty case of the jitters, Salt Lake wiped out the all-time mark of 27 held by the 1902 Corsicana Oilers and the 1921 Baltimore Orioles.
The glue holding the whole thing together was Trapper reliever John Groennert, who replaced starter Koichi Ikeue in the top of the second with the bases loaded and went the rest of the way to record the historic victory. In a 7 2/3 innings performance, Groennert allowed just five hits, while striking out eight Giants and walking none.
The Giants got all of one run in that critical second. And then, after already possessing a 2-1 lead after a bases-loaded walk and a bases-loaded hit batter by the Pocatello pitcher in the first, the Trappers really went to work.
In the bottom of the second, Pocatello walked in another Salt Lake run, and hit Mike Malinak with the bases loaded to give the Trappers a 4-1 lead. Frank Colston then lashed a three-run double and Jon Beuder singled in another to make it 8-1. Salt Lake clawed out another run on a Giants error in the fourth, got two more in the sixth on Ne Reynolds’ two-run single and turned it into a laugher in the seventh when Colston ripped a two run double.
Colston was the evening’s offensive hero with six RBI’s in a 2 for 3 outing at the plate.
Source: SaltLake Tribune July 26, 1987
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