By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
The 95th and last pitch of the night for Burlington Bees starting pitcher Jackson Rodgers was hit on the ground to second baseman Ethan McDonald.
McDonald threw to first to get Quincy’s Jimmy Koza for the last out of the seventh inning, and Rodgers pumped his fist and let out a yell.
Rodgers’ performance was one of the best of the season for a Bees starter, but it was wasted when Quincy rallied for four runs over the last two innings for a 6-4 win in Friday’s Prospect League game at Community Field.
Rodgers allowed two runs and seven hits, striking out five while walking one.
“He did a hell of a job,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said. “I haven’t had anyone do that this year. He did everything he could to deserve that win.”
Rodgers, a sophomore from Western Illinois University, was making his fifth start of the season. He had gone five innings in his previous three starts, but Oreskovich knew he could get some length out of him considering how he was pitching in the early innings.
“He was throwing to contact and getting his outs, getting over the plate early, making them swing,” Oreskovich said. “Hitting’s hard, so when you get ahead and throw strikes early, you force their hand, and he did a great job of that.”
“Strikeouts are fun, but they rack up the pitch count,” Rodgers said. “I was able to get a few on some good pitches, but throwing strikes in hitters’ counts, my stuff was moving enough to where it was generating a lot of weak contact.”
It was Rodgers’ fourth start against the Doggy Paddlers this season.
“I knew I was going to have to be real sharp, because they had seen me a couple of times,” he said. “The main focus was just getting ahead, staying ahead, limiting three-ball counts, limiting free bases, and the rest would take care of itself.”
Rodgers gave up one run in the first six innings. He was able to get out of the fifth inning, when he had runners on first and second with nobody out, by striking out Ashton Ertz and getting Koza to hit into a double play.
“The defense was great behind me,” Rodgers said. “They made a couple of big plays — the big double play in the fifth, and (catcher Dylan) Shepherd threw out a guy at second (Koza was caught stealing to end the third), which was big. It was just a good way to compete against myself, show some toughness out there.”
Rodgers was at 69 pitches going into the seventh inning — the league’s pitch count limit is 95 — but gave up a leadoff single to Brady Kindhart. General Schofield grounded out for the first out of the inning, then Rodgers got into a battle with Jameson Johnson, who worked a 12-pitch at-bat into a single. Krew Bond then singled to cut the lead to 4-2.
Oreskovich, though, stayed with Rodgers, who struck out Ertz before getting Koza on the grounder.
“It was awesome,” Rodgers said. “Got to dig deep, really empty the tank, just throw my best stuff out there.”
The Bees, though, couldn’t hold the lead. Quincy got a run in the eighth inning, then took the lead in the ninth.
Reliever Erick McKendry walked the first two hitters and was replaced by Mitchell Cox, who got Wandel Campana, Rodgers’ teammate at Western Illinois, to ground a ball to shortstop Colin Schmitke. Schmitke threw to second baseman Ethan McDonald to get the force out, but McDonald threw wildly at first in an attempt to get a double play, and Johnson scored the tying run.
Koza walked, then with two outs Tyler Butina singled to score Campana and Koza.
“We’ve got to throw strikes early in the count,” Oreskovich said. “We can’t let free bases happen, it’s hurt us all year.”
Burlington finished the first half of the season 13-14 and in second place in the Northwest Division. The Bees begin second-half play with Saturday’s home game against the Normal CornBelters.
“It’s a fresh start going into tomorrow,” Oreskovich said. “The guys have been talking about it, so we’re going to see what we can do in the second half.”
Rodgers was happy with what he got out of the first half.
“It’s awesome being a place like Burlington,” he said. “Fans are great, I get to play with a great group of guys, and I feel like I’ve had a lot of success too. I feel like I’ve grown and built on each start, and I’m excited to see where I can go from here.”
Photo: Burlington Bees starter Jackson Rodgers allowed two runs in seven innings in Friday’s loss to Quincy. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
