By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
The errors always seem to come at a bad time for the Burlington Bees.
Three errors led to three unearned runs in Wednesday’s 11-5 loss to the Clinton LumberKings in a Prospect League game at Community Field.
The Bees fell to 0-2 in the second half, and while manager Owen Oreskovich said he felt like his team was getting ready to break through after a 6-23 first half, the costly mistakes keep holding them back.
The Bees are tied for third in the league with 55 errors leading to 44 unearned runs.
Two throwing errors in the fifth and sixth innings helped Clinton build a 9-3 lead, and kept the Bees from mounting a comeback.
“That seems to be nothing new with how the summer has gone so far,” Oreskovich said. “It’s one of those things we can’t seem to kick.”
Each team had 13 hits, but the LumberKings (3-0) made the most of theirs. Six of the Bees’ hits came with two outs, which kept any sort of rally from developing.
“We need to get hits before there are two outs, which would be another beneficial thing,” Oreskovich said.
Clinton built a 5-0 lead in the first two innings off Bees starter Jackson Wohlers. Wohlers was hit on the right hip by a line drive from Rayth Peterson, who was the second batter of the game. Four of the five outs Wohlers got in the game were strikeouts, but Oreskovich wondered if the line drive played a role in his struggles.
“I can’t fully say that it affected him,” Oreskovich said. “But it had something to do with it. His slider wasn’t there very much after that, it was kind of staying flat. And his fastball was flat. It was his hip, so trying to push off, it could have affected him.”
The Bees got solid relief pitching. Joe Evans allowed two unearned runs and struck out four in 3 ⅓ innings. Vinny Mauro allowed just one earned run in three innings.
The Bees got two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Keanu Spenser scored on Skyler Agnew’s sacrifice fly to deep right field. Cooper Donlin, who extended his hitting streak to 16 games and on-base streak to 20 games, scored on a wild pitch.
“I like his approach at the plate,” Oreskovich said of Donlin’s streak. “He just gets in the box and does his thing.”
Agnew hit a home run in the fifth inning. Corey Boyette drove in a run with a single in the seventh, then added an RBI single in the ninth.
Photo: Burlington’s Skyler Agnew (left) is greeted by teammate Christian Dunn after his fifth-inning home run. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
Baseball at The Hive 