By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
His pre-game meal and the 105-degree heat index didn’t make for a good combination for Burlington Bees starting pitcher Danny Harris.
Four pitches into Monday’s start against the Johnstown Mill Rats at Community Field, Harris bent over, sick, behind the Community Field mound.
Two batters into the inning, after he went over to cover first base on a ground out, Harris came back to the mound and, well, the contents of his meal were evacuated into the grass.
“I did not think I was going to throw up,” Harris said. “I thought it was just jitters and then it was like, ‘OK, I guess I’m going to throw up.”
With that out of the way, Harris stayed a while on the mound. He threw 7 ⅓ innings in the 5-3 win that helped the Bees extend their lead in the Prospect League’s Northwest Division.
The Bees (31-21 overall, 19-7 second half) have a half-game lead on Illinois Valley, just two nights before the two teams play a doubleheader at Community Field.
The Bees extended their winning streak to six games, and have won nine consecutive home games as they head into the final three days of the regular season.
“It’s a good start (to the week),” Harris said. “We’ve never had six wins in a row, now we’ve done that. We just want to keep it going.”
Harris kept going after his early gastric distress. He allowed just one run over the first seven innings before giving up two runs in the eighth.
“About halfway through that game, I thought, ‘We’re going to stick with him,,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said. “He was getting his outs. Not a lot of (strikeouts), but he was getting his outs. And it’s hard to take a guy out when he’s getting his outs.”
“It was just grit, work ethic,” Harris said. “It was, ‘How bad do you want to go out there and compete for your team and get a win?’ I’ve got to get a chance for my guys to make the playoffs.”
Oreskovich said he kept an eye on Harris’ health.
“He was all good,” Oreskovich said. “We were getting him iced up, getting water in him.”
Harris (4-1) allowed six hits and struck out three, getting double plays in the fourth and sixth innings after the Mill Rats got their leadoff hitters on base. He got first-pitch strikes on 17 of the first 24 hitters he faced.
“I was trying to live down in the zone,” Harris said. “Compete, get strike one, and then attack because it’s easier to get them out when they’re on their heels. I was just trying to be efficient — a groundout is the same as a strikeout.”
The Bees had a three-run seventh inning to take a 5-1 lead, and the length of the inning made Oreskovich think about taking Harris out.
“I wanted to see what he had in him,” Oreskovich said.
Harris gave up singles to Brady Gavula and Brennon Seigler, with both runners moving up on Kuyper Lashutka’s sacrifice bunt. Jace Essig’s single up the middle brought in both baserunners and ended Harris’ night.
“He was really good,” Oreskovich said.
Jack Duncan came in and retired the next two hitters on just four pitches, then Braeden Sunken pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his seventh save.
“That’s what we need out of those two, and we’re going to need that this week,” Oreskovich said.
The Bees took a 1-0 lead in the first when Cole Yearsley singled and scored when Kooper Schulte’s fly ball to right field was turned into a three-base error.
Johnstown tied the game in the third inning on Cooper Rasmussen’s sacrifice fly, then the Bees took the lead back in the fifth when Jace Figuereo scored on a wild pitch.
Schulte and Owen Nowak had run-scoring singles in the seventh, and Corey Boyette scored on a wild pitch for the Bees’ final run.
Box score
Photo: Bees starter Danny Harris went 7 1/3 innings in the 5-3 win over Johnstown on Monday. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
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