By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Ten pitches in the first inning is an economical way to start the game.

The three-up, three-down beginning of the day for Burlington Bees starter Quinn Wilfong in Sunday’s Prospect League game against the Decatur Bean Ballers set a tone for him, and his team, in the 6-1 win at Community Field.

Wilfong (2-0) allowed two hits and one unearned run in 5 ⅔ innings for the Bees (7-10), who were playing at home for the first time in eight days.

It started in the first inning for Wilfong, a right-hander who pitched at Florida State College at Jacksonville this season. He retired Misael Maldonado, who popped out on the first pitch of the game, then struck out Matthew Novominsky and got Oneill Feliz on a fly out to end the inning.

“I feel like that always sets you off on the right foot,” Wilfong said. “Keeping your pitch count down, and getting ahead early, really helps.”

Wilfong gave up a run in the second inning when his two-out error allowed Jackson Miller to score, then retired the side in order in the third and fourth innings. He struck out four of the last seven hitters he faced, and his day ended at 86 pitches when he walked Feliz with two outs in the sixth inning.

“When he gets ahead, and he’s really good, he keeps that pitch count down,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said. “When he can do that, he can go deeper into the game. Even when he did fall behind, he was making quality pitches to get back into the count.”

Wilfong threw just 15 ⅓ innings at FSCJ this season, posting a 19.96 ERA in 11 appearances. He has a 3.27 ERA in three appearances with the Bees.

Wilfong said he has learned a lot so far this summer.

“These first few appearances, I’ve learned getting ahead with strikes is the most important thing,” he said. “With the start of this game, I wanted to be heavy fastball early, work with change-ups, and once they see me and hit me, start working backwards on them. I need off-speed to land for strikes, and for my fastball to be direct and aggressive.”

The Bees put pressure on the Bean Ballers (7-10) in the middle innings.

Burlington took a 2-1 lead in the third inning when Troy Peltz singled home Lucas Krebs. Juan Fernandez’s two-run double extended the lead in the fourth, then Peltz hit a 392-foot home run off the scoreboard in right-center field in the first for a 5-1 margin. Dalton Miller’s sacrifice fly in the sixth scored Fernandez with the final run.

Talon Jennings closed the game for the Bees with 3 ⅓ scoreless innings, striking out four, to record his first save of the season.

“I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Wilfong said. “It was perfect today.”

“We’re starting to string together hits and coming through with guys on base,” Oreskovich said. “And I think our pitching has been really good for the most part — when we’ve struggled, it’s been early in the game, but guys settle in. It’s starting to click a little bit for us.”

Photo: Bees starting pitcher Quinn Wilfong allowed just two hits in 5 2/3 innings in Sunday’s win over Decatur. (Photo by Steve Cirinna)

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Tanner Reinartz is getting his first full lesson in the difference between wood bats and metal bats.

Reinartz, playing for the Burlington Bees in the Prospect League this summer after a big first season of college baseball, has struggled a bit with the adjustment.

Wednesday’s 10-4 win over the Clinton LumberKings might have been the breakout game for the right fielder from Rochester, Indiana.

Reinartz had two hits and drove in four runs hitting in the No. 3 spot in the Bees’ lineup.

“It was great,” Reinartz said of his night. “I’ve been struggling at the plate. I’ve been getting a lot of cage work, tee work. It paid off tonight.”

Reinartz hit 15 home runs and drove in 60 runs this season at Huntington University, an NAIA school in Indiana. He hit .338 with a 1.210 OPS.

But Reinartz came into this game hitting .207 with the Bees. It’s his first season in a wood-bat league, although he said he did play in a couple of wood-bat tournaments before.

“The swing weight is completely different from an aluminum bat, and the barrel’s a lot smaller,” Reinartz said. “Your misses are misses. With an aluminum bat, you can end-cap a ball and it leaves the yard, but with a wood bat it’s a single.”

“It was good to see him have a game like this,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said. “I know he can hit the ball, I’ve seen him do it in (batting practice), that’s why I’ve got him hitting where he’s at.”

The Bees (4-4) struck early against the LumberKings (3-5). Leadoff hitter Foti Rigopoulos singled on the first pitch of the first inning, then Juan Fernandez followed with a double. Reinartz then singled to drive in both runners.

Reinartz then had a two-run single as part of the Bees’ seven-run fifth inning, a heavy-traffic inning that Oreskovich said shows the balance of Burlington’s lineup.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who had good at-bats,” he said.

Fernandez drove in two runs. Lucas Krebs drove in two runs hitting out of the fifth spot in the lineup.

Oreskovich got another good pitching night. Starter Riley Fuller allowed just one earned run in four innings. Ty Mikkelsen (1-0) allowed one run in two innings. Jaylan Patterson threw two shutout innings, then Jake Weissenberger pitched a scoreless ninth.

Nick Hartje (0-1) was the losing pitcher.

The Bees are now 3-0 at home, settling into their season after a five-game road trip to the eastern part of the league.

“It’s just a desire to win, come out with these boys every day and grind,” Reinartz said. “I’ve known these guys for a week, and they’re like brothers to me.”

UP NEXT: The Bees play at Quincy on Thursday night before returning home for games Friday and Saturday against the O’Fallon Hoots.

Photo: Bees manager Owen Oreskovich (left) talks to Tanner Reinartz at third base during the seven-run fifth inning in Wednesday’s game. (Steve Cirinna Photography)

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

The body language was what Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich wanted to see in his first team meeting on Sunday.

“They seemed excited yesterday about everything,” Oreskovich said. “When we were talking about winning, I saw a bunch of head nods. We’ve got a bunch of guys from winning programs, and that’s  going to be a main focus with this group.”

The Bees open the Prospect League season with Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. game against the Normal CornBelters at Community Field. It’s the sixth season for the franchise in the college summer league, but it’s the first time the Bees are opening the season coming off a playoff appearance the season before.

Burlington went 33-21 last season. They went 21-7 in the second half to win the Northwest Division, then lost to the Clinton LumberKings in the first round of the playoffs.

That run was just fuel for Oreskovich, who enters his fifth season as the Bees’ manager.

“That meant a lot, especially to this town,” Oreskovich said. “It meant a lot to me, but to give back to this town and to these fans who support us, it meant the world. All of those guys on that team mean a lot to me. They’re still brothers, they still send each other messages in the group chat. It’s really cool.”

Oreskovich said his time with the Bees has been an education — his college baseball job is hitting coach at Mount Mercy University.

“I’ve learned a lot here — I don’t really know where to start,” he said. “How to take care of people is one thing. How to manage a team is another. But really building a culture is something I’ve learned, and that has happened here. That happened last summer. It was kind of like the first summer where we’ve had that.

“The culture I would want is a family-like culture, where guys are going to work hard every single day they come in, but also have that want and will to win. That’s exactly what that team had last year, and I’m going to work the hardest to build that here this year as well.”

Oreskovich has put together a 40-player roster — “I had a lot more than 40 interested,” he said, laughing — although some players have still not finished their spring college seasons and will arrive in the next couple of weeks.

“Hopefully all of these guys want to be here all summer,” Oreskovich said. “I know some guys have some commitments in the second half. When I get guys in the summer, I expect them to come here, play hard, and I’m going to give them a good time.”

It is mostly a new team. Only three players from last season — pitcher Mitchell Cox, infielder Kila Teixeira and outfielder Jace Figuereo — are currently on the roster.

“Having a couple of guys from last year come back, that means a lot,” Oreskovich said. “A bunch of those guys we had last year were older. But I’m excited about this group. It is a little younger group — we have a couple of juniors. They might have to learn a little bit. But we have guys from winning programs, and that matters. They know how to go about their business, and I expect the same thing out of them.”

Oreskovich hadn’t decided on an Opening Day starting pitcher as of Monday afternoon, but he has a deep pitching staff of 22 players.

“That’s the earliest thing I focus on,” Oreskovich said of how he put together this roster. “Sometimes that’s hard with coaches not wanting to place pitchers (with summer league teams) early on in the year. But that’s kind of the main thing I focus on right away. That was something I did last year, that maybe I wanted more pitchers than the average team would have. But it matters if you have six starters — those guys are throwing once every six days, seven days. Keeping them fresh is something I care about, too. It’s really nice to have that many guys.”

The progression of the franchise extended to the postseason in 2025. Oreskovich would like to have a deeper run.

“We’re going to have fun, but we’re going to go about our business and work hard and win baseball games,” he said. “I haven’t met too many people in the world who like losing, and I sure as heck do not.”

Photo: Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich (right) celebrates a home run with Cole Yearsley last season. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)