By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
One loss was going to sting.
Two turned out to be crushing.
The Burlington Bees’ hopes at making the Prospect League playoffs suffered plenty of damage in the doubleheader loss to the Thrillville Thrillbillies on Monday at Community Field.
The two defeats — 17-6 in the first game, 8-5 in the second game — put the Bees (23-30 overall, 13-13 second half) 3 ½ games behind the Quincy Gems for the Great River Division’s second-half playoff spot.
Burlington has four games remaining — Wednesday at Clinton, Thursday and Friday at home against Clinton, and Saturday at home against Quincy — with almost no margin for error at this point.
What was frustrating for Bees manager Owen Oreskovich was a play in the second game that switched the momentum and ultimately led to Oreskovich’s ejection.
The Thrillbillies had loaded the bases with no one out in the second inning. Bees starting pitcher Colton Clarahan struck out Cameron Hill for the first out, then got Jaden Correa to hit a comebacker that looked like it was going to be a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning.
Clarahan got the force out at home plate, but Chase Honeycutt’s throw to first base was wide, allowing Charlie Corum to score.
Oreskovich thought Correa was out of the baseline and interfered with the play, and after a short argument was ejected by plate umpire Matthew De Sutter.
“He really didn’t have an explanation, which was kind of why I was even more upset, which is why I went out there,” Oreskovich said. “Bases loaded, no outs. Clarahan gets the strikeout, and then it’s as easy as a double play as it gets. I didn’t think it was a very tough call.”
Hayden Ralls followed with a two-run single and the Thrillbillies led 3-0.
That left the Bees chasing the rest of the game. They got single runs in the third and fourth innings to get within 3-2, then Thrillville scored two runs in the fifth and two in the sixth to take command.
What added to the frustration of the game was the Bees could have gotten more runs in the third inning. They had the bases loaded with no one out after getting their first run, and couldn’t add anything.
“I felt like that inning where we left the bases loaded really took the wind out of us,” assistant coach Nate Robertson said. “We had the bases loaded, couldn’t do anything with it. It felt like every time we were starting to get momentum, the breath just got taken out of us.”
The Bees got two runs in the seventh on Keanu Spenser’s second home run of the night — he had a three-run homer in the first game — for the final margin.
Spenser now has 10 home runs off the season, tied for second most in the league and one behind leader Lucas Loos of Quincy.
The second inning was costly for Bees in the opener. Thrillville got six runs in the inning on just two hits, taking advantage of five walks from starting pitcher Jared Townsend to take a 7-1 lead.
Four Bees pitchers combined to walk 10 Thrillbillies.
“Too many walks in the whole game, and it really bit us hard,” Oreskovich said. “It’s hard to come back when you get behind that much early.”
Photo: Keanu Spenser heads home after hitting his second home run of the night. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
Baseball at The Hive 