By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
It was a slugfest score without much slugging.
The Burlington Bees’ 12-9 win over the Alton River Dragons in Saturday’s Prospect League game at Community Field started late because of rain, and took almost 3 1/2 hours to play.
It wasn’t exciting, but it served its purpose for the Bees (24-21 overall, 13-7 second half), who won their seventh consecutive game. Burlington moved with a half-game of Clinton for the Northwest Division’s second-half playoff spot.
There was little in the way of offensive fireworks on a night when the Bees held a post-game firework show. The two teams combined for 17 hits, but Burlington pitchers walked 11 River Dragons, while Alton pitchers walked 10 Bees. Throw in seven hit batters and two wild pitches, and whatever traffic clogged the bases for both teams was self-inflicted.
The Bees led 3-1 after the first inning, but neither team had a hit, a sign of what was to come in the game.
Burlington seemed to put itself into position to win by the 10-run rule with a seven-run fourth inning to take a 12-2 lead. But Alton, which has the worst record in the league at 4-39, came back with three runs in the fifth inning, single runs in the seventh and eighth innings, then scored three runs in the ninth before Bees reliever Jake Weissenberger got Charlie Berry to ground into a double play to end the game.
Adam Kudronowicz and Kade Knock each had two hits for the Bees.
Payton Hodges (1-0) was the winning pitcher, while Nick Castellanos (0-2) was the losing pitcher.
The Bees play host to Quincy in Sunday’s 4 p.m. game.
Photo: Bees second baseman Rowen Bergeron tags out Alton’s Caynen Patterson. (Photo by Steve Cirinna)
Baseball at The Hive 