Mistakes Bring End To Winning Streak – Baseball at The Hive

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

There were some flaws hidden in the Burlington Bees’ five-game winning streak that proved costly in Friday’s 6-3 loss to the Clinton LumberKings.

They had overcome some of their mistakes — errors in the field and struggles at the plate early in the game — in their current run, but those mistakes played a big role in their loss in the Prospect League game at Community Field.

The Bees (6-3) had their lead in the Northwest Division cut to a half-game over the LumberKings (6-4). The two teams play again on Saturday night.

The Bees have been a come-from-behind team during the streak, but couldn’t produce a comeback in this game — they scored two runs but left two runners on base.

“We had errors again that led to runs,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said. “And it seems to be a continuing thing. Hopefully that’s going to clean up with the more games these guys are playing on these fields, especially being at home, but we just got to get better at that. We have to be making quality pitches when we have to. And if our offense was doing what they were doing in the ninth inning earlier, that takes a little pressure off the pitchers.

“That’s something I’ve been kind of telling these guys in the last couple days. You know, we’ve won some tight games, but, you know, we can make them not tight if we’re just better earlier in the game.”

The Bees had eight baserunners in the first four innings, but could only get one run, and that came on a throwing error.

“They see it, and obviously they know that we can’t give up and we won’t give up, so by getting those two in the ninth and having the tying run at the plate, we showed that,” Oreskovich said. “But you know, we can make it easier on ourselves by just being better earlier in the game.”

Clinton’s first run was unearned because of an error, and the Bees committed two more errors in the sixth inning, but neither of those baserunners scored. Burlington is tied for second in the league for most errors with 21.

The LumberKings took control of the game late. James Hackett hit a solo home run off Bees reliever Erick McKendry in the seventh for a 3-1 lead, then Jaden Martinez pounded a three-run home run off Kaimana Burgo in the eighth.

The Bees made the game close in the ninth. Cole Yearsley singled to lead off the inning and scored on Nolan Grawe’s double. Conor Fitzpatrick singled with one out to score Grawe, but Ryan Skwarek and Mason Schwalbach had back-to-back flyouts to end the game.

Will Schufrieder (1-1) was the winning pitcher. Zane Frese (0-1) took the loss.

NOTES: Schwalbach joined the Bees on Friday. He played for them in 2023, hitting .335 with seven home runs. “He texted me, said he had nowhere to play,” Oreskovich said. “That’s an offer I wasn’t going to pass up.” … Bees starting pitcher Danny Harris allowed just one unearned run over four innings, allowing four hits and striking out four.

Photo: Bees shortstop Nolan Grawe tags out Clinton’s Brett White as White attempted to steal second in the first inning. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)