Ninth Inning Is Too Late – Baseball at The Hive

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

A ninth-inning rally couldn’t erase the eight innings of zeros for the Burlington Bees on the Community Field scoreboard.

The Bees put together a last-chance eruption for the second consecutive night, but couldn’t complete the comeback in a 4-3 loss to the Clinton LumberKings in Saturday’s rain-delayed Prospect League game.

It’s only the second time this season the Bees (6-4) lost two consecutive games, but it knocked them out of first place in the Northwest Division as the LumberKings (6-3) took over the top spot.

“We’ve got to be better at the plate,” said Bees manager Owen Oreskovich, whose team scored twice in the ninth and had the tying run at the plate in Friday’s 6-3 loss to Clinton. “We can’t (rally in the ninth inning) every game.”

The game started 30 minutes late, delayed by a late-afternoon rain, but Burlington’s bats didn’t wake up until after the sun went down. Clinton starting pitcher Chance Key (2-0) scattered five hits and struck out six in six innings, then reliever Dean Phillips struck out four over two innings.

The Bees got to reliever Camden Clewett in the ninth. They loaded the bases with one out, then got their first run when Nolan Grawe scored on a wild pitch. Clewett struck out Cole Yearsley for the second out, then Dash Denton singled to left field to score Ryan Skwarek and Dylan Shepherd. Caleb Seibers then hit a slow grounder to Clinton shortstop Drew Terpins, whose throw to first base beat Seibers by a half-step, and the game was over.

The Bees had an early chance to score off Key, with runners on second and third and two outs in the first inning, but second baseman Austin Mallee made a diving catch on Kila Teixiera’s line drive to end the inning.

Their next best chance came in the sixth, trailing 1-0. Keanu Spenser led off the inning with a double, but Key struck out Corey Boyette and Teixiera, and got Grawe to ground out to end the inning.

“Give (Key) credit, he’s pretty good, but that’s not an excuse for him to throw zeros for six innings,” Oreskovich said. “I mean, we had opportunities in the first couple of innings, and we just got to do a better job. It seems like we got away from our approach that we had in the first seven games, being aggressive in counts with runners in scoring position. We’re just not doing that right now, and we’ve got to get back to that.”

The Bees got five good innings by starter Kaelen Carlson (0-1), who allowed just four hits, struck out three, and didn’t allow a walk.

“He was filling up the strike zone,” Oreskovich said. “That’s what we ask of these guys, and making pitches when he has to, if he does walk a guy, he’s coming back and going after that next guy, and he’s not even worried about that anymore. Our pitchers have done more than enough for us to win those last two games. We’ve just got to be better at the plate.”

The Bees play a doubleheader at Quincy on Sunday.

“We’ve got to go down there, get a couple of wins, and get this thing going again,” Oreskovich said.

Photo: Burlington Bees second baseman Ryan Skwarek tags out Clinton’s Brytton Clements in the second inning. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)