By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
It was a crowded infield.
A traffic jam of Burlington Bees and a wall of Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp greeted Brandon Bickford in the bottom of the 10th inning.
Bickford’s winning fly ball towered over all of that.
Bickford’s sacrifice fly scored Coy Sarsfield with the winning run as the Bees won, 8-7, in Saturday’s Prospect League game at Community Field.
Burlington (7-12) rallied from an early 6-1 deficit to win for the third time in its last five games.
“No giving up, go out and fight, win a game,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said.
Sarsfield started the inning on second base under the league’s new extra-inning rule, and moved to third on Kooper Schulte’s single to left field. Schulte moved to second on an error on the throw back to the infield, then Jackson Fisher was walked to load the bases.
That brought up Bickford, a .188 hitter this season who had a 4-for-4 game in Wednesday’s loss to the Cape Catfish.
Illinois Valley countered with a five-man infield, bringing in left fielder Louis Perona to play on the left side of the infield.
Bickford didn’t change his approach.
“I was just trying to put a good ball in play, hopefully hit it far enough that we could score and win the game,” Bickford said. “I was just looking for a ball up. Luckily I got one and put a good swing on it. And we scored.”
Bickford’s fly ball was caught by Tobey Jackson in short center field, but Sarsfield was able to get home with the winning run.
“When I first hit it, I did not think I hit it hard enough,” Bickford said. “Fortunately, we had a fast runner on third. He made an aggressive play and scored.”
Bickford struggled with his hitting to start the season, with just two hits in his first 24 at-bats. His game on Wednesday brought back some confidence.
“More of it was just working with the coaches, getting my swing back to feeling good,” Bickford said. “And getting pitches I need to hit well.”
“He had the four-hit night at Cape, and he smoked some balls at Alton (in Thursday’s 8-6 win),” said Oreskovich, the hitting coach at Mount Mercy University where Bickford plays. “It’s huge. I’ve got faith in that kid. Even though he’ll have a bad day once in a while, he always has a smile on his face. So, that was huge for him to get that hit.”
Bickford, who is from Des Moines, had 12 family members in attendance.
“It was a really cool opportunity,” Bickford said. “Some of them haven’t seen me play in a few years. Luckily we got a win, and a good hit to walk it off.”
The Bees had gotten out of the top of the 10th with some big pitches from Jake Jakubowski (1-0). Illinois Valley had Cody Kashimoto on third with one out when Jakubowski snagged a hard grounder from designated hitter Tyler Dorsch, throwing Dorsch out at first while keeping Kashimoto from scoring. After Justin Rios was hit by a pitch, Jakubowski got Jackson to ground out to end the inning.
“JJ made a big play on that grounder,” Oreskovich said. “He was really big over those last two innings.”
The Bees trailed 6-1 when the game was delayed by rain in the top of the fourth inning. They immediately struck after the 61-minute stoppage on Mason Schwalbach’s two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth, then they tied the game in the fifth with three runs, two coming on a single from Keanu Spenser and one on a single from Sarsfield.
The Schwalbach homer, along with Spenser’s solo home run in the second, provided a lift, Oreskovich said.
“Those are huge, because those are dugout boosters,” he said.
The Bees took a 7-6 lead in the sixth on Jaden Hackbarth’s RBI single, then the Pistol Shrimp tied it in the eighth on Jackson’s sacrifice fly.
Sam Corbett (0-1) was the losing pitcher.
ON DECK: The Bees, on a six-game homestand, play the O’Fallon Hoots in a 2 p.m. game on Sunday. Cauy Massner will be the starting pitcher for Burlington.
Photo: Coy Sarsfield slides across home plate with the winning run in the Burlington Bees’ 8-7 victory over Illinois Valley. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
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