When Thursday's game mercifully ended, the scoreboard at Dehler Park looked more like the face of a keno machine.

Great Falls had put a 17-4 hurting on the Billings Mustangs, and the numbers told the story: The Voyagers rapped out 20 hits and scored runs in every inning save for three.

Not only that, Billings made five errors and scarcely had a chance to catch up before the game was definitively out of reach.

Second-year Mustangs manager Julio Garcia did not mince words in the clubhouse afterward.

"It wasn't real nice to see, to be honest with you," Garcia said. "The last couple days we've had trouble making plays, and that seems to go hand-in-hand with those big innings.

"We've given up quite a few runs and the pitching hasn't been able to pick up the defense and vice versa. That's why you've seen the kind of scores that you've seen."

About the only bright spot for the Mustangs was the effort of relief pitcher Donnie Joseph, the Cincinnati Reds' third-round draft choice in the Major League Baseball draft earlier this month.

Joseph, a left-hander from the University of Houston, threw two perfect innings, striking out five. He even attempted to make a barehanded play on a sharp bouncer up the middle, which he knocked down and fired to first base for an out in the top of the seventh inning.

Joseph is the Mustangs' highest-drafted player currently on the roster. He made the most of his professional debut.

"My main thing was to not get ahead of myself, to not get caught up in the moment," Joseph said. "I got my fastball down in the zone and that was helping me. My slider was working. I was fortunate to have lefty hitters come up, and I was able to use my slider a lot with them."

Joseph was so dominant that after he struck out Kenneth Gilbert swinging in the seventh, Gilbert broke the bat in frustration on the dirt outside the batter's box.

The Voyagers failed to get a hit or draw a walk in either of Joseph's innings, the sixth and the seventh.

"There's no telling what can happen in an inning," Joseph said. "My main thing was to come in and hold them. With our hitters, there's no telling what we can do."

But the Mustangs were not able to create much offense.

After Shane Carlson was thrown out trying to score on Tyler Stovall's double in the first inning, Billings didn't have another solid opportunity to make it a game until the seventh inning.

But after scoring two runs, the Mustangs stranded the bases loaded.

The bottom half of Great Falls' lineup drove the onslaught. First baseman Rob Cummings, right fielder Jordan Cheatham, catcher Chase Blackwood and second baseman Jeff Tezak went a combined 11-for-22 with 10 runs and eight RBIs.

Blackwood hit a long home run over the left-field wall in the ninth inning, a solo shot. It was the first home run of the season at Dehler Park.

Billings will next hit the road for five games, the first of which is tonight at Great Falls.

"Hopefully we can forget about this game and go out (today) and just play the way we're capable of, starting with catching the ball and throwing it across the diamond," Garcia said. "I think once you do that you'll be fine."

NOTES: Mustangs starter Luca Panerati gave up five earned runs in three innings. Panerati pitched for Italy in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. … First baseman Humberto Sosa was inserted into the Mustangs' lineup about an hour and a half prior to the first pitch. Sosa replaced first baseman Chris Richburg, who was pulled due to back spasms. … Catcher Trey Manz will be out for another 10 days, Garcia said. Manz, a 26th-round pick in this year's draft, has an oblique injury.