HOOTS 15, BEES 5: Pair Of Six-Run Innings Lead To Frustration

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

One six-run inning was costly.

Two of those? Too much.

The Burlington Bees’ 15-5 loss to the O’Fallon Hoots in Monday’s Prospect League game at Community Field was a lesson in frustration for the home team.

Bees’ pitchers gave up 14 walks and 13 hits, leading to a parade of Hoots on the bases.

O’Fallon’s six-run second inning set an early tone. The six-run fourth proved fatal.

“One is bad enough,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said. “The second one…”

The Bees (7-14) seemed to have weathered the first outburst. They were within 6-5 before the Hoots knocked out Burlington starter Aiden McGee.

McGee got out of the first inning by striking out the last two hitters, then O’Fallon had a seven-hit second to take a 6-2 lead. McGee responded with a scoreless third and Oreskovich was hoping he had settled in for a longer outing.

Instead, McGee loaded the bases with nobody out, ending his night. O’Fallon’s Chase Beattie then cleared the bases with a double into right-center field off reliever Adrian Nery. The Hoots (12-9) added three more runs off Nery in the inning, and it was a 12-5 lead.

“I thought (McGee) was going to be able to start that fourth inning off right, and it wasn’t the case,” Oreskovich said. “It’s tough to bring in a kid with bases loaded, nobody out, and ask him to get out of that with no damage. We just had to do a better job.”

O’Fallon added three more runs in the sixth inning with two outs. Reliever Nick Tampa hit Ethan Rossow with a pitch, then walked the next three hitters to bring in a run. John Stallcup’s two-run single closed the scoring for the game.

“We had a couple of innings tonight where we get two outs right away, and then there’s two or three walks and then a hit,” Oreskovich said. “That can’t happen. You’ve got to bear down, make a pitch. Focus on that pitch, and make it.”

The Bees got an early lead, getting two in the bottom of the first inning on Mason Schwalbach’s home run to right field. They added a run in the third when Jaden Hackbarth singled in Caleb Wulf, then got two more in the third when Kooper Schulte drove in a run, then scored on a wild pitch.

Drew Politte (4-2) was the winning pitcher.

ON DECK: The Bees play host to the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes in a 6:30 p.m. game Tuesday. Jeremy Fox (0-2, 11.57 ERA) will be the starting pitcher for Burlington.

NOTES: Schwalbach is now third in the league in home runs with five. … Burlington’s Coy Sarsfield extended his hitting streak to four games with a first-inning single. The outfielder from Iowa is hitting .400 in the last four games.

Box score

Photo: Mason Schwalbach (21) is greeted at home plate by teammates Jaden Hackbarth and Keanu Spenser after his first-inning home run. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

THE MONDAY HIVE: Bees’ Rice Shows Maturity Out Of High School

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Trent Rice is 18 years old, just graduated high school, and he admitted to some nerves coming into a situation where he has to face older, experienced players.

And then you see him racing across left field at Community Field to catch a fly ball twisting into the corner and then you realize he’ll be just fine in the Prospect League.

Rice was a late arrival to the Burlington Bees — his high school season in Michigan was just wrapping up when the Prospect League started — but he has made an impact.

Rice is batting .400, which would put him seventh in the league in hitting if he had enough at-bats to qualify, and has proven he can handle himself against the college players in the league.

“Obviously, for me, there’s a lot to learn,” said Rice, a three-time first-team All-State selection at Cardinal Mooney High School in Macomb, Michigan. “I’m the youngest guy here and I’ve never really been a part of something like this. The college kids, they’ve taught me a ton since I’ve been here.”

Rice went 1-for-4 in his first start at Clinton on June 11, starting a six-game hitting streak that included five multi-hit games.

“He was smacking the ball around all on this last road trip,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said.

Oreskovich likes Rice’s speed, which he showed in Saturday’s 8-7 win over the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp.

***Trent Rice catches a fly ball from Illinois Valley’s Louis Verona in Saturday’s game at Community Field. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)***

Rice, batting at the top of the Bees’ lineup, beat out an infield hit in the first inning, and then in the fifth inning chased down a fly ball in foul territory down the left-field line for the second out.

“There aren’t many guys who get to that ball,” Oreskovich said. “I’ve got confidence in him because he’s got confidence in himself. I didn’t even ask him if he’d ever hit lead-off. I just put him in there. He’s a mature kid, no doubt about it.”

What has helped with his confidence, Rice said, was the advice of his teammates.

“The first couple of days were rough, getting into the swing of things,” he said. “But, the guys really took me in and showed me the ropes early on. And I’m glad they did.”

“I came in late to the season, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew I would be battling uphill, and it was going to be tough. But I came in, and the guys were extremely excited for me to be here, and that helped.”

The Prospect League is for college players, but teams can have four players who have completed their high school careers and have signed a letter of intent or have a financial aid agreement with a college. Players are not eligible until after their official graduation date. Rice, who signed a letter of intent with Oakland University, and infielder Drew Gaskins, another Oakland signee, are the only high school players on the Bees’ roster.

“I was actually at work one day — I worked at a pizzeria for two months — and one of my coaches called me and asked me if I wanted to go to Burlington,” Rice said. “I had no idea what it was, but I thought if it was an opportunity for me before college, I wanted to take it.”

Rice played baseball and basketball throughout his time at Cardinal Mooney, a school of just 140 students. He was a 1,000-point scorer in basketball, and also played one season of football, as a wide receiver and cornerback.

“Baseball and basketball were my two sports growing up,” Rice said. “ I actually started playing basketball before I started playing baseball. But just everything that went with baseball in the summer, that’s what I wanted to be a part of. And my skills are geared more toward baseball.”

He is getting a lesson in the off-field side of summer baseball. Nine of Rice’s first 11 games were on the road, including a five-games-in-six-days trip that included two games in Jackson, Tenn. and single games in O’Fallon, Mo., Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Alton, Ill.

“Obviously it’s something I’ve never been a part of,” Rice said. “It’s a little tiring — the traveling, the hotels. It’s tiring for me, because I’ve never been a part of it. So it’s going to help me a lot along the way. I just have to get used to it, and keep grinding.”

It’s all about the experience, Rice said.

“I think I’m going to get a ton of growth out of this,” he said. “Not only just being around these college guys, but my skills as well. Hitting is the big thing for me. I wanted to get better at that, not only with power, but having a mentality at the plate, knowing what pitches are coming, things like that.

“It’s already helped me. I’ve seen the best pitching I’ve ever seen. It’s really going to prep me for college, for sure. Just to see the arms, the different curveballs, the different off-speed pitches, even if I don’t hit as well as I would like to, it’s going to help me out, no matter what.”

Top photo: Trent Rice is hitting .400 in his first season with the Burlington Bees. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

HOOTS 11, BEES 2: Bad Start After A Big Night

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

The Burlington Bees were back at Community Field for a day game after a night in which they rallied for a win.

The momentum, though, didn’t come with them.

The O’Fallon Hoots struck for nine runs in the first three innings on the way to an 11-2 win over the Bees in Sunday’s Prospect League game.

The Bees (7-13) came back from an early 6-1 deficit to defeat Illinois Valley 8-7 in 10 innings on Saturday night.

But they quickly fell behind in this game, with a deep deficit that was much too difficult to overcome.

The Hoots (11-9) scored three runs in each of the first three innings, swatting 11 hits off Bees starting pitcher Cauy Massner (0-4), who lasted just 2 2/3 innings.

“It wasn’t our day, especially in the first three innings,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said.

Massner’s struggles left the Bees’ bullpen with a lot of innings to cover, but Chase Golden, Preston Kaufman and Bobby Helt filled their roles.

Golden gave up two unearned runs and two hits in 2 1/3 innings. Kaufman pitched a scoreless sixth inning, then Helt allowed one hit and struck out four in the final three innings.

“Chase did a phenomenal job — if a popup gets caught he doesn’t give up those two runs,” Oreskovich said. “Our bullpen essentially threw up zeros over the last six innings. They did a phenomenal job.

“I don’t want these guys to look at the score when they’re coming in. I’m bringing them in so it stays where it is. I tell all of these guys, I don’t want any more (runs), and that’s what I expect out of them coming out of the bullpen. You’re coming in to keep it where it is. We can’t go back and subtract runs. We need to keep it where it is.”

Tanner Holland drove in both of the Bees’ runs with an RBI single in the second inning and a solo home run in the fifth.

That was all the Bees could do against O’Fallon starting pitcher Matt Haley (1-2), who allowed five hits in seven innings.

The Hoots had 15 hits, including four from leadoff hitter Braedon Stokes.

ON DECK: The two teams play again at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Community Field. Aiden McGee (1-1, 6.23 ERA) will start for the Bees against O’Fallon’s Barrett Lohman (1-0, 2.45).

NOTES: Bees right fielder Coy Sarsfeld extended his hitting streak to three games with a seventh-inning single. … Bees third baseman Connor Laeng singled in the second inning for his first hit of the season.

Box score

Photo: Bees shortstop Cooper Schulte tags out O’Fallon’s Mike O’Connor on a stolen-base attempt in the fourth inning. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

BEES 8, PISTOL SHRIMP 7: Bickford Delivers In The 10th

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

It was a crowded infield.

A traffic jam of Burlington Bees and a wall of Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp greeted Brandon Bickford in the bottom of the 10th inning.

Bickford’s winning fly ball towered over all of that.

Bickford’s sacrifice fly scored Coy Sarsfield with the winning run as the Bees won, 8-7, in Saturday’s Prospect League game at Community Field.

Burlington (7-12) rallied from an early 6-1 deficit to win for the third time in its last five games.

“No giving up, go out and fight, win a game,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said.

Sarsfield started the inning on second base under the league’s new extra-inning rule, and moved to third on Kooper Schulte’s single to left field. Schulte moved to second on an error on the throw back to the infield, then Jackson Fisher was walked to load the bases.

That brought up Bickford, a .188 hitter this season who had a 4-for-4 game in Wednesday’s loss to the Cape Catfish.

Illinois Valley countered with a five-man infield, bringing in left fielder Louis Perona to play on the left side of the infield.

Bickford didn’t change his approach.

“I was just trying to put a good ball in play, hopefully hit it far enough that we could score and win the game,” Bickford said. “I was just looking for a ball up. Luckily I got one and put a good swing on it. And we scored.”

Bickford’s fly ball was caught by Tobey Jackson in short center field, but Sarsfield was able to get home with the winning run.

“When I first hit it, I did not think I hit it hard enough,” Bickford said. “Fortunately, we had a fast runner on third. He made an aggressive play and scored.”

Bickford struggled with his hitting to start the season, with just two hits in his first 24 at-bats. His game on Wednesday brought back some confidence.

“More of it was just working with the coaches, getting my swing back to feeling good,” Bickford said. “And getting pitches I need to hit well.”

“He had the four-hit night at Cape, and he smoked some balls at Alton (in Thursday’s 8-6 win),” said Oreskovich, the hitting coach at Mount Mercy University where Bickford plays. “It’s huge. I’ve got faith in that kid. Even though he’ll have a bad day once in a while, he always has a smile on his face. So, that was huge for him to get that hit.”

***Brandon Bickford hits a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)***

Bickford, who is from Des Moines, had 12 family members in attendance.

“It was a really cool opportunity,” Bickford said. “Some of them haven’t seen me play in a few years. Luckily we got a win, and a good hit to walk it off.”

The Bees had gotten out of the top of the 10th with some big pitches from Jake Jakubowski (1-0). Illinois Valley had Cody Kashimoto on third with one out when Jakubowski snagged a hard grounder from designated hitter Tyler Dorsch, throwing Dorsch out at first while keeping Kashimoto from scoring. After Justin Rios was hit by a pitch, Jakubowski got Jackson to ground out to end the inning.

“JJ made a big play on that grounder,” Oreskovich said. “He was really big over those last two innings.”

The Bees trailed 6-1 when the game was delayed by rain in the top of the fourth inning. They immediately struck after the 61-minute stoppage on Mason Schwalbach’s two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth, then they tied the game in the fifth with three runs, two coming on a single from Keanu Spenser and one on a single from Sarsfield.

The Schwalbach homer, along with Spenser’s solo home run in the second, provided a lift, Oreskovich said.

“Those are huge, because those are dugout boosters,” he said.

The Bees took a 7-6 lead in the sixth on Jaden Hackbarth’s RBI single, then the Pistol Shrimp tied it in the eighth on Jackson’s sacrifice fly.

Sam Corbett (0-1) was the losing pitcher.

ON DECK: The Bees, on a six-game homestand, play the O’Fallon Hoots in a 2 p.m. game on Sunday. Cauy Massner will be the starting pitcher for Burlington.

Box score

Photo: Coy Sarsfield slides across home plate with the winning run in the Burlington Bees’ 8-7 victory over Illinois Valley. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

THE MONDAY HIVE: Consistency In Bees’ Lineup Helps Sarsfield

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Coy Sarsfield arrived a little late — there was this little matter of playing in the NCAA baseball tournament — but he’s found a daily home in the Burlington Bees’ lineup.

Getting to play in the Prospect League every day, the outfielder from Iowa said, is important after battling back from a broken leg that cost him most of his senior season in high school and his first season with the Hawkeyes.

“It’s been almost two years of not playing consistently,” Sarsfield said. “Now, playing consistently, I think it’s going to be huge for me, just getting back into everything. The biggest thing is pitching, getting live at-bats. I feel like being here, just for five games, I feel like I’m seeing the ball better, getting better swings.”

Sarsfield is hitting .292 after seven games with the Bees. He had a five-game hitting streak snapped with an 0-for-3 game in Saturday’s loss to the O’Fallon Hoots.

Sarsfield has found a home in the Bees’ outfield, playing mostly in right field. He showed his defensive abilities in last Thursday’s 9-8 win over Illinois Valley, when he made a sliding catch on a sinking line drive from Pistol Shrimp catcher Nick Chavez. Sarsfield threw to first and appeared to get Logan Delgado coming back to the base — Delgado was originally called out, but the call was overruled after base umpire Dan Carriker consulted with plate umpire Jacob Fisher.

“Damn near a double play,” marveled Bees manager Owen Oreskovich. “He made a hell of a catch out there, and came up throwing.

“He’s quick, he’s got some juice, he knows the game, and he can roam around the outfield. So it’s huge for us to have a kid like that.”

**Burlington Bees outfielder Coy Sarsfield comes up throwing after making a diving catch in Thursday’s game against Illinois Valley. (John Lovretta/bees-blog.com)**

What’s huge for Sarsfield is just getting to play consistently. He broke his leg seven games into his senior season in 2021 at Linn-Mar High School in Marion, Iowa and had to have surgery. A second surgery in November of that year led to Sarsfield sitting out his freshman year with the Hawkeyes.

“He’s seeing at-bats on consecutive days, and I think that’s going to benefit that kid a lot,” Oreskovich said. “He loves the game.”

Sarsfield played in just 17 games for Iowa this season, hitting .176, but he was involved with one of the biggest moments for the Hawkeyes in their 6-5 win over North Carolina in an elimination game on June 4 in the NCAA’s Terre Haute Regional.

Sarsfield, pinch-running for Blake Guerin in the 13th inning, scored the go-ahead run, coming around from first base on Michael Seegers’ triple.

“In my head, I know there’s two outs and as soon as there’s contact, I’m going,” Sarsfield said. “Michael Seegers gets a hold of one, I saw it was touched pretty well. I didn’t know where it was going. I just put my head down, got around second, saw (Iowa coach Rick) Heller waving his arms, and I made it home. I was thinking, ‘I’m going to score and we’re going to win this game.’”

The Hawkeyes, though, lost to Indiana State in the next game to end the season.

“It was unreal,” Sarsfield said. “Just the atmosphere, the energy. Playing for something really big, and everything that comes with that, is pretty cool. Obviously, it didn’t end the way we wanted it to turn out. Kind of heartbreaking. But it gives everyone a vision for what we want to do in the future.”

Sarsfield has been envisioning his future since arriving at Iowa. But getting a chance to observe has been helpful, he said.

“A year in college, just watching, it’s crazy how much you can see, and how much you can learn when you get in a game situation,” Sarsfield said. “You don’t realize until you watch people do things how much you need to prepare to be ready. In high school, you know you have to work hard. Then, you get to Iowa, and you see you really need to work harder to get on the field.”

Sarsfield joined the Bees on June 10, and made his first start the following day at Clinton.

“Obviously there’s some nerves going into a new situation,” he said. “But once I got into the clubhouse, everyone was welcoming. It’s baseball, everyone understands at this age what’s going on and has a good understanding of everything.”

Oreskovich has used Sarsfield in the middle of the Bees’ lineup. He went 2-for-5 in Thursday’s win, including a two-run double in Burlington’s five-run fourth inning.

“I hit him in the ‘5’ hole because I know he’s someone who’s going to put the bat on the ball,” Oreskovich said. “And he actually came up with some giant hits.”

“I would say it’s very important,” Sarsfield said of getting to consistently be in the lineup. “This year at Iowa, I didn’t get to play a bunch. Now that I’m back in the swing of things, it’s allowing me to play much better and getting me back in a rhythm.”

Top photo: Burlington Bees outfielder Coy Sarsfield bats in Thursday’s game against Illinois Valley. (John Lovretta/bees-blog.com)

CATFISH 9, BEES 3: League’s Best Offense Strikes In Two Big Innings

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

The Cape Catfish have proven in the early part of the Prospect League season that they won’t let you get away with mistakes.

The pitchers for the Burlington Bees found that out in Friday’s 9-3 loss to the Catfish at Community Field.

The Catfish (13-1) lead the league in runs scored and batting average, and they jumped on the Bees (4-9) with a pair of three-run innings that featured a couple of long home runs.

Lane Crowden had a three-run homer in the fourth inning, then Landon Godsey added a two-run homer in the fifth.

“Just a couple of pitches…” lamented Bees manager Owen Oreskovich.

The Catfish have a league-best .353 batting average and average more than 10 runs per game, so big innings almost seem inevitable.

It struck the Bees at the middle point of the game.

Jacob Zahner (0-1), the starting pitcher for the Bees, gave up just one run in the first three innings and was one out away from getting out of the fourth when he walked Godsey on a 3-2 pitch. Kevin McCarthy followed with a single and then Crowden hit his home run over the left-field wall.

“(Zahner) was really good. He was early,” Oreskovich said. “That two-out walk, the base hit, and then the home run … I wouldn’t say it knocked the wind out of anyone’s sails, but it’s just aggravating, especially to him. That’s what’s frustrating.”

The Catfish got three more runs in the fifth. Jeff Clarke scored on an error, then Godsey launched his home run to the outfield.

Bees pitchers allowed 13 hits, six walks, and the Catfish stole five bases. That kind of traffic leads to runs.

“I mean, they’re pretty good,” Oreskovich said. “I thought for the most part our pitchers did a good job. We got out of a lot of spots. But we gave them too many free bases, and that’s killing us right now.”

The Bees had baserunners in every inning but the eighth, but couldn’t come up with their version of a big inning.

Mason Schwalbach’s double scored Jaden Hackbarth with the Bees’ first run in the third inning. Jackson Fisher had a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning, and Kooper Schulte had an RBI single in the seventh.

The Bees had nine hits.

“I thought our offense did a good job of keeping us in that game,” Oreskovich said. “We had guys on base. But then we were hitting balls right at guys.”

Dylan Peck (3-0) was the winning pitcher.

The Bees begin a five-game road trip with Saturday’s game at O’Fallon. They play at Jackson on Monday and Tuesday, the Catfish on Wednesday and Alton on Thursday.

Burlington is 0-6 on the road this season.

“Plain and simple, we have (struggled),” Oreskovich said. “We have to come out ready to play from the first inning. Our pitchers have to be tough on the mound. They haven’t been the toughest yet, but they have to be tough on the mound on the road. And our offense needs to back them up and then we need to play defense behind them. You do that, you win baseball games. We need to lock in on doing that.”

NOTES: Caleb Wulf played in his first game with the Bees this season, going 1-for-4 as the designated hitter. Wulf hit .384 this season at Southeastern Community College, which plays its home games at Community Field. … Schwalbach and Tanner Holland extended their hitting streaks to six games. Coy Sarsfield, who went 2-for-4, has a five-game hitting streak. Schulte and Hackbarth have hits in four consecutive games.

Box score

BEES 9, PISTOL SHRIMP 8: Message Received, And A Streak Comes To An End

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Wednesday was a day off from a five-game losing streak, but Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich had his team at Community Field for a morning workout.

And in a conversation with the players on the field, Oreskovich told his team that there is still a lot of baseball remaining this summer in the Prospect League schedule for the Bees.

The response on Thursday was a 9-8 win over the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp.

A five-run fourth inning put the Bees into the lead, and then they held off a late Illinois Valley rally for the win.

“Yesterday was more of just keeping these guys tough in their heads,” Oreskovich said. “I can’t say if it did or didn’t make a true difference. But it helped their heads a little bit. We’re still out here trying to do this thing.”

“Basically, it was just, ‘Get that W,’” shortstop Kooper Schulte said. “We’ve been on a losing streak — I don’t know how long it was, but it was too long. So it was just, let’s get the ‘W.’ And hopefully we can keep it rolling from there.”

The Bees (4-8) had 12 hits, including eight from their 2-3-4-5 spots in the lineup. Mason Schwalbach had three hits and drove in three runs. Schulte and Coy Sarsfield each had two hits.

The inspiration of Oreskovich’s message came from this spring. Mount Mercy, the college where Oreskovich is an assistant coach, opened the season 2-6, then won 21 of its next 23 games.

“So it’s possible to turn things around,” Oreskovich said. “I felt like it was time to make sure everyone is bought in to trying to win baseball games. There’s a ton of baseball left.

“It’s baseball. You’ve seen that stuff happen many times.”

“No one likes losing,” Schulte said. “I freaking hate losing, myself. But it’s part of life. Stuff happens. You just have to push through that.”

Of course, the Bees came out and promptly gave up three runs in the top of the first inning. But they responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning — Schwalbach had an RBI triple, Ian Wolski followed with a run-scoring single and then later scored on a throwing error.

“I’ve said before — we try to score every inning,” Oreskovich said. “And when you’re down 3-0 coming in and you haven’t even hit yet, sometimes that’s a little tough on an offense. But these guys are strong-minded, and our offense knows we’ve got to do a little extra right now. They’re doing everything they can, battling every time up there.”

“It was big-time,” Schulte said of the response. “That pretty much gave us the momentum throughout the game. I thought we were scoring every inning the way it was going.”

Then came the fifth, when the Bees erupted trailing 4-3. Schwalbach’s sacrifice fly tied the game, then Sarsfield and Keanu Spenser had back-to-back two-run doubles.

Schwalbach’s single in the fifth inning scored Drew Gaskins with Burlington’s final run of the night.

Illinois Valley (5-8) scored three runs in the seventh, and threatened in the ninth inning with two runners on base with two outs, but Bees reliever Drew Martin closed out the game by getting Logan Delgado to ground out.

Dylan Haslett (1-1) was the winning pitcher. Martin got his first save. Sam Corbett (0-1) was the losing pitcher.

NOTES: Schwalbach extended his hitting streak to five games. He is hitting .357 this season, and is hitting ,474 during his current streak. … Schulte boosted his batting average to .448. … Sarsfield has hit in four of his first five games.

ON DECK: The Bees play the Cape Catfish (12-1) in Friday’s 6:30 p.m. game at Community Field. Jacob Zahner will pitch for the Bees.

Box score

Photo: Burlington Bees shortstop Kooper Schulte tries to tag out Illinois Valley’s Tobey Jackson on a stolen-base attempt in the third inning. (John Lovretta/bees-blog.com)

THE MONDAY HIVE: Schwalbach Provides Anchor To Middle Of Bees’ Lineup

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

One pitch in Sunday’s game was a reason why Burlington Bees manager Owen Oreskovich wants Mason Schwalbach in the lineup all of the time.

Schwalbach, a left-handed hitter, was facing Clinton LumberKings reliever Jared Simpson, a lefty, for the first time.

Schwalbach worked a 2-1 count, then dropped a single into left field, going the opposite way against Simpson.

“His stats are almost the same, righty versus lefty,” Oreskovich said. “He’s really comfortable facing a left-hander. And that makes it easier for me to hit him every night.”

You don’t put up the numbers Schwalbach has in the last two seasons at McHenry County (Ill.) College without being able to handle everything. Schwalbach, named an NJCAA Division II first-team All-American on Monday, hit .412 this season, ranking fourth in the nation with 22 home runs, and second with 88 runs batted in. That follows a freshman season in which he hit .408 with 10 home runs and 57 RBIs.

Those kinds of numbers, including a career OPS of 1.270, make him the anchor of the Bees’ lineup in the third spot.

“Baseball’s the hardest sport,” Schwalbach, the Bees’ designated hitter, said last week. “It’s the sport of failure. To be able to have success makes all of the hard work worth it.”

Schwalbach is hitting .310 with an OPS of 1.042. He ranks in the top 10 in the Prospect League in home runs (2), runs batted in (12) and slugging percentage (.621).

He’s carried the momentum from his spring season into his time with the Bees.

“Just everything clicked, I feel like,” Schwalbach said. “I had a lot of guys around me who were helping out. We had guys always on base, which made it easy for me to knock them in. There was a lot of work in the winter that I put in, and everyone else on the team put in, and it carried over into the spring.”

Being in the batting cage is something Schwalbach enjoys. Sometimes the work takes 30 minutes, sometimes 90 — “As much as I feel is necessary,” Schwalbach said.

He had specific goals before he started his work on Friday, which was an unscheduled day off for the Bees after that night’s game had been canceled.

“A lot of times I work on bat speed,” Schwalbach said. “Today it will be off-speed pitches, breaking balls. I will try to pick one or two things to work on and really hammer them until I’m confident that I feel better.”

Oreskovich was a coach at McHenry County when Schwalbach was a freshman, so he knew what he was getting when Schwalbach committed to play for the Bees.

“He competes at the plate,” Oreskovich said. “He does things right.”

Oreskovich pointed to a first-inning at-bat on Sunday, when, with runners on second and third, Schwalbach took a ball in the first pitch from Clinton starter Graysen Drezek, then on the next pitch hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field to bring in the first of the Bees’ two runs in the inning.

Schwalbach finished the game going 2-for-4, his third multi-hit game of the season. Both hits came when the count was in Schwalbach’s favor.

“When we’ve got runners in scoring position, he’s looking to get ahead early in the count,” Oreskovich said. “He knows the game really well. He’s a smart hitter up there.”

Coming to Burlington was an easy choice for Schwalbach.

“It’s been great,” he said. “A lot of baseball, a lot of games. The guys have been awesome.

“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of what I expected, because I knew it would be a lot of baseball, which I was looking for. And the competition has been as good as I expected, which has been great.”

Schwalbach has signed to play at Kansas State next season, choosing the Wildcats over Michigan State, Jacksonville, and Troy.

“I was a big fan of the coaches, and their hitting philosophies there,” he said. “They were a winning program this year, so they’re going in the right direction, for sure, to becoming one of the top teams in the Big 12. And their facilities are unbelievable. I thought that gave me the best opportunity.”

This summer, Schwalbach said, is preparation for what comes next.

“I just want to be a little more mature in the box, on the field, before I get to school in the fall, because it’s going to be a big adjustment,” he said. “The best I can do is prepare more mentally. I think I have the physical stuff, but it’s just making sure I’m ready, mentally, when I get there.”

‘A SCARY SCENE’

The Bees’ game with the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes on Friday was called off after an incident in Thursday’s game between the two teams in Springfield.

Springfield pitcher Matt Cruise was hit in the head by a line drive on the second pitch of the game. Cruise was taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance and that night’s game was canceled.

“It was a scary scene,” Oreskovich said.

Friday’s game forced a change in the Bees’ schedule for later this month. The June 29 game against the Horseshoes was going to be an exhibition game, one that didn’t count in the standings. Instead, it will replace the Friday game and count in the standings.

HIGH-SCORING CATFISH

The Cape Catfish are the only undefeated team left, starting the season 10-0 with the league’s most prolific offense.

The Catfish have three of the top four hitters in the league — Chris Hall (.625), Brody Chrisman (.514) and Justin Carinci (.488). They lead the Prospect League with 121 runs scored, and have a league-high .394 batting average.

The Bees play host to the Catfish on Friday.

Photo: Burlington Bees designated hitter Mason Schwalbach reacts after a double in a game against the Quincy Gems earlier this season. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

LUMBERKINGS 11, BEES 2: Too Many Swings And Misses

CLINTON, Iowa — The Burlington Bees aren’t among the Prospect League leaders in strikeouts.

It’s just that their strikeouts came at the worst times in Sunday’s 11-2 loss to the Clinton LumberKings.

Clinton pitchers recorded 10 strikeouts, but what hurt the Bees was seven of those strikeouts came with runners on base.

And that bothered Burlington manager Owen Oreskovich.

“We’re striking out with runners in scoring position,” Oreskovich said. “We had all of the chances in the world to get at least 10 runs in that game. We’re just not coming through with a hit when we need it.”

The Bees rank ninth in the Prospect League with 80 strikeouts in nine games. Six teams, including the LumberKings, have 90 or more.

But Clinton (7-4) leads the Great River Division by three games over the Bees, and in Sunday’s game that was because of timely hitting.

Parker Shupe’s third-inning grand slam was especially devastating. The LumberKings had 23 runners reach base, the Bees had 13, but Clinton found a way to keep the traffic moving.

The Bees (3-6) got both of their runs in the first inning. Mason Schwalbach’s sacrifice fly scored Tanner Holland, and Jaden Hackbarth scored on Coy Sarsfield’s double.

After that, it was squandered opportunities. The Bees loaded the bases with one out in the fourth inning and couldn’t score. They opened the sixth inning with back-to-back walks and couldn’t score.

Even in the ninth, with the game’s outcome basically decided, a double by Trent Rice to start the inning was wasted.

“It’s the second night in a row we scored in the first inning, and didn’t get anything after that,” Oreskovich said. “That’s not normal. We have to compete better in the plate during the game.

“We have to put the ball in play. Make them make a play.”

Aiden McGee (0-1), making his first start of the season, found his way out of jams in the first two innings, allowing just one run. Then came the third, when Clinton loaded the bases with one out, then Shupe homered to right-center field.

“Just one bad pitch cost him,” Oreskovich said of McGee. “He hasn’t thrown that long in a little bit. He just made one bad pitch, but I liked what I saw. We’ll work him up more.”

Bees reliever Nick Tampa was touched for three runs in 1 1/3 innings. Jaden Siemer gave up two runs in two innings. Preston Kaufman gave the Bees two strong shutout innings, with the only baserunner coming on a dropped third strike.

Hackbarth and Schwalbach each had two hits for the Bees. Sarsfield, making his first start of the season, reached base three times.

Jared Simpson (1-0) was the winning pitcher for Clinton.

Box score

CORNBELTERS 6, BEES 4: Just One Of Those Prospect League Nights

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

A balk that brought in the go-ahead run.

A dropped third strike that ended a game on a play when no one quite knew what happened.

Oh, and there was the 5-3-2 double play on a sacrifice bunt.

There will be nights in the Prospect League when games can get a little strange, and the Normal CornBelters’ 6-4 win over the Burlington Bees on Wednesday at Community Field was one of those.

An eighth-inning balk called on Bees reliever Jaden Siemer brought in Scott Newman with the go-ahead run, then J.D. Bogart’s single drove in Daniel Young with a second run as Normal (5-2) held on for the win and ended the three-game home winning streak for the Bees (3-4).

“It’s a little frustrating, for sure,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said.

The Bees had tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning on Cedric Dunnwald’s two-run single with one out, but two strikeouts sandwiched around a Kooper Schulte walk that loaded the bases ended the inning.

“We still had a chance to fight and score some runs earlier, to make (the balk) not a problem,” Oreskovich said.

The CornBelters had runners on first and third in the eighth when base umpire Louis Galligan called the balk on Siemer.

“He said (Siemer) didn’t come set,” Oreskovich said. “But I thought he was doing the same thing he had been doing the whole time.”

Bogart, hitting No. 8 in the lineup, then singled to left field to score Young.

“It kind of gave them a little momentum there, and then they get a base hit out of the ‘8’ hole,” Oreskovich said.

The Bees were retired in order over the last two innings, although there was some confusion on the final out. A 2-2 pitch to Dunnwald went over the glove of Bogart, the CornBelters’ catcher. The pitch was called a strike, but Dunnwald stood at home plate before realizing the call. Bogart was able to track the ball down and throw Dunnwald out at first.

Oreskovich argued the call with plate umpire Brian Ingram, but the game was over.

Four Bees pitchers combined for five walks and 11 strikeouts, but three of the runs in the game were unearned.

“I thought our pitchers did a great job, all around,” Oreskovich said. “They did their job for us to win the game. They just had hits with runners in scoring position when they got them there, and they took advantage of some mistakes, too.”

Bees starter Jacob Zahner walked one and struck out five in five innings.

Dylan Haslett, who relieved Zahner, walked Young to lead off the sixth. Camden Ruby followed with a bunt up the third-base line. Third baseman Jaden Hackbarth fielded the ball and threw Ruby out at first, but Young started to head to third since no one was covering the base. Catcher Ian Wolski raced to cover the base, making the tag on Young for the second out.

Drake Downing (1-0) was the winning pitcher.

ON DECK: The Bees are on the road to play the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes on Thursday in a game that won’t count in the standings for either team. The two teams will play a similar game at Community Field on June 29.

NOTES: Schulte went 2-for-4 with a double and a run. He has six hits in his first nine at-bats since joining the team on Sunday. … Hackbarth had two hits and scored twice.

Box score

Photo: Bees catcher Ian Wolski tags out Normal’s Daniel Young at third base in the sixth inning. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)