By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
Caleb Wulf’s hit was twisting toward victory.
Coy Sarsfield was running toward victory.
And Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich, in the third-base coaching box, was a boisterous traffic cop.
It was the final scene in a frantic comeback that could define the Bees’ season.
Wulf’s hit, and Sarsfield’s run, ended the Bees’ 10-9 10-inning win over the Alton River Dragons in Friday’s Prospect League game at Community Field.
The Bees (23-27 overall, 13-10 second half) moved into second place in the Great River Division, staying one game behind Quincy for the division’s second-half playoff spot heading into Saturday’s game against the Gems.
They did it by rallying from an early 8-0 deficit, tying the game in a suddenly-windy ninth inning on Mason Schwalbach’s sacrifice fly and then winning it in the 10th on Wulf’s single, his third hit of the night.
“There’s not many words,” Oreskovich said. “I’ve got a few select ones that I was screaming out at the end of the game when all of that was happening.”
The noise from the clubhouse below spoke to the win.
“It means everything,” Oreskovich said. “Can you hear those guys down there? It means everything. We’re trying to do what the goal is, and winning a game like that, coming back from down 8-0 … that’s about as much as you can ask for.”
“This is definitely the greatest game I’ve been a part of,” said reliever Preston Kaufman, who allowed one run over four innings to keep the Bees close in the middle and late innings.
The Bees got two runs in the fifth inning on Schwalbach’s home run to right field, then after Alton added a run in the sixth Burlington scored three in the seventh, three in the eighth, and then the single runs in the final two innings.
“It was early, a lot of guys were down,” Wulf said. “It just started with one hit, then followed by another. We plugged away and found a way to win it.”
The game, played in oppressive conditions with a heat index of 108 degrees at the start, lasted 3 hours, 53 minutes. The humidity made it feel like time was standing still — actually, it was on the scoreboard clock, which read 11:27 from beginning to end.
Then came the gusts of the bottom of the ninth, which actually kept the Bees from winning a little earlier.
Corey Boyette opened the inning with a triple that hit off the top of the right-field wall. Schwalbach, who had struck out with the bases loaded and two outs twice in the game, was at the plate as the potential winning run when gusty winds swept across the stadium, damaging a covering over the patio down the third-base line and umbrellas in the picnic area on the first-base side.
Schwalbach stepped out of the batter’s box and the game was stopped for a few moments. He came back in to hit a deep fly ball that was knocked down by the wind, but was still deep enough to score Boyette.
“Two innings earlier, that’s a home run,” Oreskovich said. “I had all of the confidence in the world in Mason. Those other at-bats didn’t matter to him. He came up and got a big hit.”
Kyle Looper (1-0) pitched a scoreless 10th inning, nearly getting out of it facing just two batters. Jake O’Steen, who started the inning at second base under the league’s extra-inning rules, was thrown out trying to steal third for the second out of the inning, but Looper walked Chase Bloomer before Erik Brockmeier lined out to end the inning.
Then came the 10th, when Wulf hit a 1-1 fastball from Luke Gasser (0-3) that sliced into left field. Alton’s Alex Hagen couldn’t reach the ball, which fell near the foul line as Sarsfield, who was the Bees’ 10th-inning runner, scored the winning run.
“I knew the wind was playing a factor, but I thought as long as I get a ball (into the outfield) it should help me a little bit,” Wulf said. “Just tried to keep it simple, and it paid off.
“I figured I could put a good swing on it. If (the wind) helps me, it helps me. If it hurts me, it hurts me. Just take my at-bat like I normally do, and see what happens.”
“From my point of view, I thought it was (going to be fair),” Oreskovich said. “I thought it might fall shorter than it did. I did think it was going to stay fair, and then that was incredible base-running by Coy.”
Alton (18-33, 9-16) was constantly putting pressure on the Bees, with baserunners in six of the first seven innings. But Kaufman kept the River Dragons from scoring after giving up the sixth-inning run, retiring the last nine hitters he faced.
“I just wanted to throw strikes,” Kaufman said. “(Bees catcher Ian) Wolski started calling the slider, and the second inning I went out there, and it just worked out. They were late on the fastball, because the breaking balls were so good.”
Kaufman, who gave up six runs and only got one out in his first appearance of the season, has become a reliable middle-inning piece of Oreskovich’s bullpen. He has allowed just five earned runs in 15 ⅔ innings, and this was his longest outing of the season.
“I love it,” Kaufman said. “Love these coaches. Love to go out and put zeros on the board for them.
“O said, ‘Just keep going. Go out there, and keep rolling.’ It meant the world that O kept me out there for four innings.”
“We wanted probably two (innings) out of him, but he was looking so damn good it was hard to not use him,” Oreskovich said. “He kept coming in, he’d go, ‘One more.’ And I was like, ‘You got it.’”
The comeback complete, the clubhouse music drowned the sound of the fireworks popping outside.
“I’m going to remember this one for a while,” Kaufman said.
“We’re going to enjoy this tonight,” Wulf said. “And hopefully ride with it.”
Photo: The Burlington Bees celebrate their 10-9 comeback win over Alton on Friday. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
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