Starters Getting Some Distance – Baseball at The Hive

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich is getting some distance out of his starting pitching.

Reese Ellison gave the Bees six innings in Sunday’s 6-2 win over the Clinton LumberKings in a Prospect League game at Community Field.

Ellison’s performance was the latest with some length for the Bees. They got five innings out of Danny Harris after he gave up five runs in the first inning of Saturday’s 14-10 win over Normal. Jackson Rodgers went seven innings in Friday’s 6-4 loss to Quincy.

“Anything we can do to save our bullpen, the better,” Ellison said. “And that’s what we’re doing so far here to start the second half. We want to keep that rolling.”

“If you’ve got to go to your bullpen early, and ask a guy that maybe isn’t entirely comfortable to go two innings, that’s a tough ask, but sometimes you’ve got to do it,” Oreskovich said. “If our starters can go deep into games, and we can go one (inning), one, one, with our relievers, that’s the best-case scenario.”

Ellison (3-2) threw 74 pitches, allowing just five hits while walking one and striking out four. He had three-up, three-down innings in the first, fourth and fifth innings.

“Excellent defense,” Ellison said. “Every pitch was working for me. I was throwing it in the (strike) zone, they were hitting ground balls, fly balls, and the defense made plays.”

“He was very good,” Oreskovich said. “He had three pitches where he wanted to throw them, throwing strikes when he had to. Even when he got behind, he came back, threw strikes. I love what I see out of him when he’s out there.”

Burlington’s Corey Boyette celebrates his third-inning home run (Photo by John Lovretta)

Corey Boyette’s three-run home run in the third inning started the Bees’ offense and helped Ellison as well.

“I was getting curveballs over for first strikes, getting them to swing at my changeup,” Ellison said. “When Corey hit that homer, I had all the confidence in the world after that.”

The Bees added two runs in the fourth inning. Danny Rollins scored on a throwing error, then Caleb Klein’s single drove in Jace Figuereo.

Clinton got single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, then the Bees’ bullpen took over. Morgan Jennings pitched 1 1/3 innings, Zane Frese got out of a bases-loaded situation in the eighth, then Braeden Sunken pitched a scoreless ninth, striking out Sam Wiese to end the game with runners at first and second.

Burlington’s final run came in the eighth when Klein’s single scored Rollins.

“That was a key hit there by Kleiner,” Oreskovich said. “That’s huge. Any breathing room you can get helps.”

The Bees had four hits. Figuereo was 4-for-5 out of the leadoff spot, while Mason Schwalbach had three hits.

Top photo: Burlington Bees starting pitcher Reese Ellison allowed five hits over six innings. (Photo by John Lovretta)