By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich thought Trent Rice was going to have a big night, just watching him taking batting practice.
Oreskovich thought about giving starting pitcher Jacob Zahner another inning, but knew he had already given the Bees four strong innings.
Every move, it seemed, paid off for the Bees in Tuesday’s 8-7 win over the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp in a Prospect League game at Community Field.
Burlington (18-24 overall, 8-7 second half) moved into a tie with the Quincy Gems for the second-half playoff spot from the Great River Division heading into a four-game road trip that starts Thursday.
Oreskovich had wanted a good start from his rotation, and he got it from Zahner, who allowed just one earned run and five hits in four innings.
Oreskovich kicked around the idea of giving Zahner a fifth inning.
“We thought about running him out there, he was only at 79 pitches,” Oreskovich said. “But we wanted him to give us a good start, and he did that. We didn’t want him to run through that lineup for the third time.”
The Bees took a 3-2 lead in the third on Rice’s two-run home run to left field, his first of the season.
“I knew he was going to have a day,” Oreskovich said. “Well, I can’t say I knew. But his BP today was pretty damn good. It was incredible today.”
The Bees kept adding runs, getting two in the fifth and seventh innings, and one in the eighth.
That last one was important, because reliever Jordan Martinez gave up a three-run home run in the ninth to cut the lead to 8-7. Oreskovich went with closer Jake Jakubowski, who struck out the last two hitters for his fourth save of the season.
David Theriot (1-0) was the winning pitcher, giving the Bees three innings of relief, allowing two runs.
“I don’t know if he’s thrown that many pitches in a while,” Oreskovich said of Theriot, who threw 61, 45 for strikes. “But he said he was feeling good, looking good. He just gave up a couple of hits here and there, nothing special. He battled through it, left some guys on base, which was huge.”
Eight Bees had one hit each. Rice, Mason Schwalbach and Coy Sarsfield each scored two runs.
The Bees open their road trip with two games at Illinois Valley, which is one game behind them in the standings.
“We’re not changing our mindset that we have every other day,” Oreskovich said. “Just be better than the other team.”
NOTES: Schwalbach hit his league-leading 18th double in the eighth inning to drive in Rice with the Bees’ final run. Not counting the completion of a suspended game on Monday, Schwalbach has hit in his last seven games, batting .379 in the stretch. … Wulf has a five-game hitting streak, hitting .450.
Photo: Bees second baseman Caleb Wulf tags out Illinois Valley’s Chase Recetich at second base in the seventh inning. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
Baseball at The Hive 