By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
The final out of David Theriot Jr.’s second biggest outing of the week hadn’t yet settled into shortstop Landon Akers’ glove as Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich popped out of the third-base dugout.
Theriot’s 96th pitch that induced the popout by Springfield’s Gavin Erhardt was his last, according to the Prospect League’s pitch limit, and Oreskovich was on his way to the mound in the final act of a brilliant performance.
And as Theriot left the mound, many in the Community Field crowd gave him a standing ovation.
Theriot threw 6 ⅔ shutout innings for his second win over Springfield in seven days, a 5-0 victory on Saturday night.
The Bees were wearing specialty jerseys for the game, and Theriot’s was auctioned off for $80.
How much was his pitching worth?
“More than that,” Oreskovich said, laughing. “More than that, for sure.”
Theriot allowed just four hits, walked three, and struck out four, throwing 57 strikes in his second bedeviling of the Lucky Horseshoes this week.
Theriot allowed two hits and struck out seven in seven shutout innings of last Sunday’s 2-0 win at Springfield to end the first half.
“He’s had two unbelievable outings the last two times out, and I kind of expect that out of him because of how he is, the competitor he is,” Oreskovich said. “He hates losing just as much as I do, which is kind of a hard thing.”
This outing wasn’t quite as crisp, but Theriot had a similar approach.
“What I try to do, when it normally works for me, is just get ahead in the count,” Theriot said. “Tonight the first inning was a little sloppy, but I still got the zero.”
Ah, yes, the first inning.
Theriot opened the game with a walk to Jimmy Koza. Wandel Campana followed with a single. Tyler Butina was hit by a pitch.
Then one of those things that has seemed to happen to the Bees this season happened to someone else.
Theriot struck out Jaison Andujar for the first out, then Collin Jennings hit a line drive that Bees right fielder Cooper Donlin lunged to catch. It looked like a sacrifice fly as Koza raced to the plate. But the Bees appealed that Koza left early, and Koza was called out.
“Oh, it was huge,” Theriot said. “Initially I thought the play was butchered by the umpire. A lot of the guys in the dugout started yelling (Koza) left early. We’ll take it. We’ll take the zero.”
“He got out of that jam early — bases loaded, no outs, and then he gets a strikeout and a double play,” Oreskovich said. “That’s huge. That propels the rest of the game for him. That’s a little weight off his shoulders. That was the difference.
“That’s a good feeling. You want to throw a zero up in the first inning, make a statement for the game. Hell of a play by Coop, and then we get the double play.”
Theriot then commanded the game from that point. Springfield had baserunners in every inning but the fifth against Theriot, but only one reached second base.
“Some guys did get some decent barrels on me, but it worked out fine,” Theriot said. “Guys made the plays behind me.”
The Bees took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Corey Boyette’s single to right field scored Akers. Boyette would score on Skyler Agnew’s single, and Donlin scored on Nick Meyer’s bases-loaded walk.
Bryce Brown’s two-run single drove in Jackson Lindquist and Meyer in the fourth inning closed the scoring for Burlington.
Oreskovich was hoping to get a full seven innings out of Theriot, knowing that he was up against the league’s 95-pitch limit — pitchers can finish the hitter they’re facing if they get to that mark. A one-out single by Tristan Meny jeopardized the chance to reach that goal.
“O said, ‘You’ve got to get out of this in 12 pitches. That’s all you’ve got,’” said Theriot, a senior at Texas Wesleyan. “I fell short a little bit.
“I could have kept going. But I know it’s summer ball. I’m sure my coach was watching, and I’m sure he was like, ‘Get out of there now.’”
“He can get a nice little sendoff after the seventh if he can get a clean (inning),” Oreskovich said. “But he still got a nice sendoff.”
Joe Evans then completed the shutout, throwing 2 ⅓ innings, allowing one hit while striking out five.
The Bees made the most of their six hits. Donlin, who went 0-for-3, had his 17-game hitting streak snapped.
It was Burlington’s second win in the second half after winning just six in the first half.
“I do hope that things can start changing here, and the baseball gods can start changing some things,” Oreskovich said. “We’ve got to play clean baseball, and we did that tonight. We threw strikes, got ahead, worked out of jams. If we do that, we’ll be just fine.”
“This was fun,” Theriot said. “We’re going to see more of this. We’re going to see wins. We need to.”
Photo: Bees pitcher David Theriot Jr., threw 6 2/3 shutout innings in Saturday’s 5-0 win over Springfield. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
Baseball at The Hive 