By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
Owen Oreskovich couldn’t help smiling.
“That,” the Burlington Bees’ manager said after Thursday’s Prospect League doubleheader sweep of the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes, “is how we should be playing baseball.”
The two wins — 6-4 in the first game, 3-1 in the second game — had all of the formula that Oreskovich has wanted out of his team this season.
It was timely hitting — Tanner Holland’s two-run single broke a 3-all tie in the fourth inning of the first game, and Brandon Bickford’s double into the left-center field gap broke a 1-all tie in the second game.
It was strong bullpen work — Jake Jakubowski struck out two of the three hitters he faced in the seventh to save the first game, and Chase Golden struck out five in two innings to get the win in the second game.
And it was about putting constant pressure on the Lucky Horseshoes — the Bees had runners on base in five of their six innings on offense in the first game, and in five of the six innings in the second game.
Suddenly the Bees (10-14), who gave up 26 runs in two losses to O’Fallon earlier in the week, have won three consecutive games since then, and have won five of their last seven.
“We call this a winning streak. Three is a winning streak,” Oreskovich said, laughing. “Glad we can finally get to that point. Everybody’s believing in each other now.”
The sound of winning echoed through the Bees’ clubhouse on a late night.
“You can hear it from down there,” Oreskovich said.
The losses early in the week seemed a long time ago, but there was a lesson in them.
“We were a little harsh when we had to be,” Oreskovich said. “Even teammate-wise, like, ‘Hey, you’re not doing what you’re doing, and you’ve got to do it.'”
Oreskovich knew, even after the losses to O’Fallon, that his pitching staff could come up with the key innings the Bees needed to win, and in this streak — and especially in this doubleheader — the mound work has been impressive.
Jeremy Fox (1-2) scattered eight hits over five innings to win the first game. Rem Maxwell walked four of the first eight hitters he faced to start the second game, but settled in to retire seven of the next eight hitters.
Golden (1-0), who came into the game with a 12.46 ERA, struck out the first two and last two hitters he faced before turning the game over to Drew Martin in the seventh, who got Springfield’s Patrick Graham to ground into a double play to end the game.
“We’ve been talking about how it looks like it’s right there for this staff,” Oreskovich said. “And tonight, it is there. A hell of a job by our staff.”
That kept the Bees in position for that key inning, and it came in the sixth. Bickford’s double scored Keanu Spenser from first base, then Bickford would score on Cedric Dunnwald’s single.
The same kind of inning happened in the first game, when Holland singled to bring in Drew Gaskins and Trent Rice. Holland then stole second and third, and scored on Connor Laeng’s single.
The Bees ended their longest homestand of the season with a winning streak, and momentum.
“I think it’s incredible for us, going forward as a team,” Oreskovich said.
NOTES: Bees shortstop Kooper Schulte left the first game after being hit on the left arm by a pitch. Schulte didn’t play in the second game. Coy Sarsfield, who was hit on the elbow in Wednesday’s win over Jackson, didn’t play in either game. … The doubleheader started an hour late because of travel issues for Springfield, caused by a line of storms that swept through central Illinois late Thursday morning and into the afternoon. “Their manager said they were getting ready to leave when the storms hit, and they had to shelter in the clubhouse,” Oreskovich said. The bus trip then took longer than expected because of detours caused by closed highways.
Photo: Burlington’s Jaden Hackbarth singles in the first inning of Thursday’s first game of a doubleheader at Community Field. (John Lovretta/bees-blog.com)
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