Record crowd watches Beavers fall to Sky Sox

The following is a press release from the Portland Beavers:

PORTLAND, Ore. – Daniel Ortmeier homered and had two RBIs and Christian Colonel added a pair of RBIs as the Colorado Springs Sky Sox defeated the Portland Beavers 4-2 in front of a near-sellout Independence Day crowd of 15,583 at PGE Park Saturday night.

Saturday’s turnout was the fourth-largest for a Beavers game since the team returned to the Pacific Coast League in 2001.

Mike McCoy reached base four times on two hits and two walks and scored twice for the Sky Sox (49-33).

Peter Ciofrone and Mike Baxter each belted solo home runs for the Beavers (38-45) in the defeat.

Alan Johnson (8-3) gave up three hits, including Portland’s two solo home runs, and two walks over 5 2/3 innings to earn his team-leading eighth win of the season.

Matt Buschmann (3-9) went six innings for Portland, allowing four runs on seven hits.

Ortmeier got the Sky Sox started in the first, hitting a ground-rule double to plate McCoy and then scoring on a single by Colonel.

The Sky Sox lead was cut in half by Ciofrone’s second-inning solo blast to right.

Ortmeier added a fourth-inning solo homer to push the Colorado Springs lead to 3-1.

Baxter’s opposite-field homer in the bottom of the fourth brought the Beavers back to within one.

Colonel collected his second RBI of the night with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Matt Wilhite worked a perfect ninth for his seventh save of the season.

The Beavers and Sky Sox continue their four-game series at PGE Park Sunday afternoon at 2:05 p.m. (Pacific)

ALL-STAR COUNTDOWN: There are 11 days remaining until the 2009 Cricket Wireless Triple-A All-Star Game, which will be held Wednesday, July 15, at PGE Park. Tickets are available at the PGE Park box office, area Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at (800) 745-3000. For group tickets, contact the Beavers at (503) 553-5555.

NOTES: Buschmann picked off the Sky Sox two best base runners –McCoy in the third and Eric Young, Jr. in the fifth … Ciofrone homered on Independence Day for the third straight year – in 2007, Ciofrone hit a two-run, walk-off home run in the 10th inning to give Class AA San Antonio a July 4th win; in 2008, he hit a grand-slam as part of a seven-run eighth inning to give the Beavers an 8-3 comeback win against Tacoma.