ORAL ROBERTS 12, WIU 0: Leathernecks Fall Short Of Summit League Tournament

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — Tayler Sheriff understands the what-ifs that can come with the end of the baseball season.

But the Western Illinois head coach knows his team had a chance to reach the Summit League tournament in the final weekend of the regular season, and that’s a good start for a rebuilding program.

The Leathernecks lost to conference regular-season champion Oral Roberts 12-0 in eight innings in Saturday’s regular-season finale.

Western Illinois finished the season 12-40 overall, 8-16 in the Summit League, finishing in a tie with Northern Colorado for fifth place in the conference, 1 1/2 games behind fourth-place Omaha, which secured the final spot in next week’s conference tournament.

Western Illinois won just eight games last season, five in conference play.

“Twelve wins was good, it certainly wasn’t the big jump we were hoping for from the previous year,” Sheriff said. “But we kind of laid the foundation, took some baby steps forward, and hopefully make that big jump moving forward into next year.”

The Leathernecks lost two games of a three-game series at Omaha earlier this month, losing the Saturday game 11-8 and the Sunday game 3-2. Those were among the what-ifs Sheriff said his team had, but he also said that series was start of a late run that included five wins in six games against St. Thomas last week.

“Down the stretch, we played some good baseball dating back to the Omaha series, where we lose two of three,” he said. “Saturday was a close game, Sunday was a one-run game, and then we go rip off five wins against St. Thomas.

“There’s one or two games here and there where you can look back and say, ‘Man, if we could have got one here or there, it’s a different story.’ Ultimately, we didn’t do enough to get in. But we put ourselves into position. And when you’re in a program where you’re rebuilding, we said all year about putting ourselves into position in games, and eventually we’ll break through.”

The Leathernecks knew they needed two wins this weekend, but they were going to have to do it against Oral Roberts (43-11, 22-1). A 7-4 loss on Thursday was another one of those what-ifs — the two teams were tied at 3 after seven innings before the Golden Eagles scored three in the eighth — then a 12-2 loss on Friday ended any postseason hopes.

This game got out of hand when Oral Roberts scored six runs in a fourth inning that started when Western Illinois starter Jake Armstrong walked three batters and hit another.

“Four straight free passes, you’re setting yourself up for disaster,” Sheriff said. “It was kind of a weird situation, (Armstrong) doesn’t give up free passes a lot. We just left some stuff out there in the inning.”

The Leathernecks couldn’t generate any offense against four Oral Roberts pitchers. Starter Brooks Fowler (8-1) allowed just one hit over five innings, then Western Illinois could only get two singles over the final three.

“I think we’ve laid the foundation, as far as everything we sought to do in rebuilding this program,” Sheriff said. “For us, we wanted to recruit really well for this year, and we’ve got a lot of young guys coming in who we’re really excited about. Beyond that, we needed to lay the foundation, lay who we want to be moving forward and what our road map is to being successful here within this program. And I think we’ve done that.”

ORAL ROBERTS 7, WIU 4: Eighth Inning Costs Leathernecks In Key Series Opener

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Western Illinois was every bit the challenger to Summit League regular-season champion Oral Roberts for seven innings on Thursday.

Then the Golden Eagles took advantage of Leatherneck mistakes in the eighth inning, scoring three runs on the way to a 7-4 win.

It was the 13th consecutive victory for Oral Roberts (41-11 overall, 21-1 Summit League) and it put the Leathernecks (12-38, 8-14) into a precarious position heading into the final two games of the regular season.

Western Illinois fell a half-game behind Omaha for the fourth and final spot in next week’s conference tournament. Omaha has two games remaining with Northern Colorado, which is one game behind the Leathernecks.

The Leathernecks had an answer for Oral Roberts throughout the game, taking a 3-3 game into the eighth before the Golden Eagles took over.

“We made some bad mistakes at a bad time against a pretty damn good team,” Western Illinois coach Tayler Sheriff said. “We played a good game for seven innings — pitched well, played great defense. We grinded out at-bats. But then we made mistakes at a bad time.”

Jack Bell (2-5), one of the Leathernecks’ top relievers, entered the game in the eighth and gave up a lead-off single to Mac McCroskey. Holden Breeze, the next batter, showed as if he was going to bunt, but walked on four pitches.

Drew Stahl, the third hitter of the inning, did bunt to move up both runners. Jacob Godman’s single scored McCroskey to put the Golden Eagles in the lead.

Blaze Brothers’ sacrifice fly gave ORU a 6-4 lead, then Jake McMurray’s single was misplayed by center fielder Nick Mitchell, allowing Godman to score.

“We walk a guy in an obvious bunt situation,” Sheriff said. “It just sets up for a big inning. We let it snowball from one bad pitch to a walk, and then maybe a few more bad pitches, and then an error out there in center field that allowed them to get a third run in that inning.”

Western Illinois got a run back in the bottom of the eighth, then Oral Roberts closed the scoring on Matt Hogan’s solo home run in the ninth.

The Leathernecks kept pace with the Golden Eagles throughout the game. Kyree Alexander’s home run in the third inning tied the game at 2, then after Oral Roberts scored a run in the top of the fourth Western Illinois tied the game in the bottom of the inning on J.R. Heavilin’s RBI single.

“I liked the way our guys fought,” Sheriff said. “We’ve fought all year. It’s a little bit of who we are. We’ve got a lot on the line (this weekend), they’ve got a lot on the line. It was a competitive game, and we expect nothing less.”

Caden Kratz gave the Leathernecks seven strong innings, allowing seven hits.

“He had command of the fastball at the top of the (strike) zone,” Sheriff said. “He’s a guy that, when he’s effective, can use his fastball to get outs at the top of the zone. Soft flyouts, popouts. He was just kind of living up, and they never really had an answer for him. And we kept going with it.”

Harley Gollert (9-1) was the winning pitcher in 3 2/3 innings of relief. Cade Denton got his 12th save.

THE MONDAY HIVE: Mulflur Happy To Get Swings In Iowa’s Lineup

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Will Mulflur was just glad to be back in the lineup.

The Iowa utility player, who had just seven at-bats this season heading into last weekend’s three-game Big Ten series with Ohio State, found himself in the starting lineup for Saturday’s game at Duane Banks Field.

All Mulflur did was go 2-for-4 with a home run in the 15-3 win, and followed that with a 1-for-3 outing in Sunday’s 5-2 loss.

Mulflur, who is on the Burlington Bees’ roster for this summer’s Prospect League schedule, finally got a chance to hit after battling with a back injury for most of the season.

“It felt great,” Mulflur said. “I’ve been waiting for the opportunity for a while to kind of crack back (into the lineup), try to help out.”

Mulflur, who hit .268 with the Hawkeyes last season, had appeared in just six games this season before this weekend, going 0-for-7 with two walks. But coach Rick Heller, looking for someone to fill in a spot in the lineup with Keaton Anthony out indefinitely, turned to Mulflur on the warmest day of the season so far.

“That’s good coaching,” Heller said, laughing. “He was my pick to click, and I write the lineup out.

“We’ve been wanting to get Will integrated into the offense. He’s been fighting the bad back most of the season. And the cold weather is really tough on him — there have been days when you could tell he wasn’t feeling it. He really is a good, mature teammate who will tell you how he feels.”

But Heller knew on Saturday that Mulflur was ready.

“I watched him in (batting practice) today and on his last swing he hit one over the hawk (logo) in left field,” Heller said. “I could tell he was moving pretty good today.”

Mulflur’s home run came off Ohio State reliever Nolan Clegg in the fourth inning, part of a 19-hit day for the Hawkeyes. His other hit was an eighth-inning single.

“I felt like I saw the ball well today,” Mulflur said. “Just tried to stick to my plan, do everything I’ve been doing since I was 12 years old. Hit some balls hard, and that felt good.”

Heller stuck with Mulflur again on Sunday. Mulflur reached base in the fourth inning when he was hit by a pitch, and singled to lead off the sixth inning.

“He’s a good hitter,” Heller said. “A good, solid hitter. An older guy with some maturity and experience.”

Mulflur, a junior who grew up in Mercer Island, Washington, played one season at Tacoma Community College before transferring to Iowa.

When he joins the Bees, it will be his second summer-league season. He played last year in the West Coast League, a league in the Northwest with teams in the United States and Canada.

“The travel was a little weird, because you were always crossing the border between the U.S. and Canada,” said Mulflur, who hit .265 in 28 games with Port Angeles. “It was good, they’ve got a lot of great Pac-12 pitchers out there. It’s a pitcher-heavy league. It’s a good competition league, and I think the Prospect League will probably be the same.”

Mulflur isn’t sure when he’ll join the Bees, whose season opens May 31. The Hawkeyes are contenders for an NCAA tournament bid, and Mulflur wants to take some time to rest his back after Iowa’s season ends.

For now, he’s glad to be a part of Iowa’s run.

“It’s just sticking with the same approach every day,” Mulflur said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re pinch-hitting in the eighth inning or starting, you’ve got to be ready to hit. You have to have your scouting report and your information. It was just staying ready, trusting my eyes, trusting that I’ve done this before and if I stick to my plan, things will work out.”

Photo: Iowa’s Will Mulflur (42) celebrates after his two-run home run in Saturday’s win over Ohio State. (Jerod Ringwald/hawkeyesports.com)

Bees’ Roster Starting To Fill

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Twenty-four players have committed to the Burlington Bees for the upcoming Prospect League season, including eight NCAA Division I players.

The roster includes two players with local connections — pitcher Jacob Zahner of Burlington (Southeastern Community College) and infielder Kooper Schulte of New London (Central Arizona College).

Several players return from last season — pitcher Nick Tampa, infielder Jayden Hackbarth, outfielder Cedric Dunnwald and infielder Brandon Bickford.

Six open spots remain on the roster. The Bees open the season May 31 at home against the Quincy Gems.

A look at the roster:

PITCHERS

Ryan Donley (LHP, Oakland University) — Hasn’t pitched this season

Luke Fredrick (LHP, Clarke University) — 0-0, 3.00 ERA in 3 appearances

Chase Golden (RHP, Western Illinois) — 14.18 ERA in 18 appearances, 11 strikeouts in 13 ⅓ innings.

Dylan Haslett (RHP, Oakland University) — 10.61 ERA in 9 ⅓ innings.

Preston Kaufman (RHP, Benedictine University) — Hasn’t pitched this season.

Rem Maxwell (RHP, Georgia Southern) — Hasn’t pitched this season.

Aiden McGee (RHP, Minnesota State-Mankato) — 0-0, 3.00 ERA, 26 strikeouts in 18 innings

Jaden Siemer (RHP, Hanover College) — 0-4, 14.04 ERA, 17 strikeouts in 16 ⅓ innings.

Nick Tampa (LHP, Morton College) — 4.26 ERA in 3 appearances. Also plays the outfield, and is hitting .299 with 4 HRs. Hit .205 with the Bees last season, and pitched in 14 games.

Jacob Zahner (RHP, Southeastern Community College) — Hasn’t pitched this season.

CATCHERS

Mason Schwalbach (McHenry County College) — .408, 10 HRs, 57 RBIs

Ian Wolski (Hawaii Pacific) — .327, 1 HR, 13 RBIs

INFIELDERS

Brandon Bickford (Mount Mercy) — .240 with 2 HRs. Hit .250 with the Bees last season.

Jaden Hackbarth (McHenry County College) — .345, 2 HRs, 24 RBIs. Hit .247 with the Bees last season.

Connor Laeng (Concordia-Irvine) — .500 in 5 games.

Kooper Schulte (Central Arizona College) — .242 in 33 games.

Jake Schulz (Concordia-Irvine) — .219, 2 HRs, 10 RBIs.

Caleb Wulf (Southeastern Community College) — .394, 37 RBIs in 47 games.

OUTFIELDERS

Cedric Dunnwald (Mount Mercy) — Hit .200 in three games with the Bees last season.

Drew Gaskins (Oakland University) — 2023 high school graduate

Tanner Holland (Central Arizona College)

Will Mulflur (Iowa) — .000 in 7 games

Trenton Rice (Oakland University) — Hasn’t played this season.

Coy Sarsfield (Iowa) — .154 in 12 games

Photo: Infielder Jaden Hackbarth is one of the players returning to the Burlington Bees this season. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

WIU 14, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 4: Leathernecks’ Offense Erupts To Snap Losing Streak

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

MACOMB, Ill. — Tayler Sheriff figured it was time Western Illinois’ baseball team put on a show.

The Leathernecks did that in Saturday’s 14-4 win over South Dakota State, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Western Illinois (4-21 overall, 1-4 Summit League) snapped a 10-game losing streak and set itself up to win a crucial conference series with the Jackrabbits (7-17, 3-5).

“It felt good,” said Sheriff, the Leathernecks’ interim head coach. “It had been a long time. We had been scuffling a little bit. We had been in some games, we just had a hard time getting over the hump, just finishing a (win) or getting a big hit to win a game.”

The Leathernecks had suffered a 6-3 10-inning loss to the Jackrabbits on Friday, and Sheriff knew how important it was for his team to recover.

“I told the team that we had played a lot of tight games, and let’s just go out and leave no doubt tomorrow,” Sheriff said. “Just go explode and score a bunch of runs and pitch well.”

The Leathernecks had 12 hits and took advantage of 14 walks. Every Western Illinois starter reached base and scored a run.

Western Illinois scored five runs in the fourth inning to take a 6-1 lead, added two runs in the seventh after South Dakota State got to within 6-4, then ended a game with a six-run eighth inning that included eight consecutive walks.

“It took us a little while to get going,” Sheriff said. “We made some mistakes on the bases early that cost us opportunities, but we stayed with it. They gave us some stuff in the fourth, and in the eighth inning with the walks. But we just stayed with our approach at the plate. It just felt nice to blow it open and coast at the end and take the pressure off a little bit.”

Nick Mitchell drove in three runs for the Leathernecks. Derek Botalitto had three hits.

Tyler Kapraun (2-4) was the winning pitcher, scattering six hits over six innings. He walked four and struck out six.

“That’s been our message to our starters,” Sheriff said. “Our bullpen has struggled this year and we’ve let him some runs late. So we kind of challenged them a little bit, shake things up, say, hey, we need six innings to give us a chance.”

Brauer Taking ‘The Pulse’ Of The Prospect League As New Commissioner

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

David Brauer is trying to get to know everything about the Prospect League.

Brauer, the new commissioner of the 17-team summer baseball league for college players in the Midwest, has taken his first few weeks on the job to get, as he said, an idea of “the pulse” of the league.

“We’ve got 17 teams, 17 different markets,” Brauer said at Friday’s Burlington Bees/Friends of Community Field Winter Banquet at the Pzazz Events Center. “They vary from teams with minor-league backgrounds like the Bees, to teams that have always been in summer college leagues. There are new franchises, and teams that have been in the league for a while. So it’s really getting a vibe for what these markets are like, what the community support is, which obviously is tremendous.”

Brauer brings to the league a background in college athletics, having spent 10 years as assistant commissioner of the Summit League, an NCAA Division I conference that includes Western Illinois University. So he understands the challenges that his new league faces.

“We’re about player development, making a great experience for the players,” he said. “At the same time, these teams are businesses, so they have to make money. It’s about finding that intersection between the communities, the teams, and the players.

“Really, the biggest key for me is trying to take inventory on what the league has done, trying to get a feel for where we want to go, and then mix in some of the ideas I have from my experience working on the college side.”

Brauer knows how competitive summer baseball has gotten.

“When this league started back in the 1960s, there were maybe three or four leagues like it around the country,” he said. “Now there’s about 30 of varying levels, depending on what the leagues put into it.

“Ours is unique because we’re trying to give that professional experience. You know, a lot of our stadiums are either old minor league parks or very capable of hosting a minor league team. So that’s a big plus. It all boils down to recruiting.”

The Prospect League recently entered into an agreement with sports analytics firm Rapsodo to provide live in-game data to players. That kind of information, Brauer said, is important to players to take back to their college programs.

“The student-athletes, they’re our biggest customer,” he said. “Word of mouth is the best way to grow our league. They’ll go back to their campuses, talk to their teammates and their coaches.”

Brauer is also looking into name-image-likeness opportunities for players, as well as mental health programs during the season.

“I think all of that is critical,” he said. “It’s just like how you would sell a college program. ‘That’s why you should come here and here’s how you can benefit from it.’

“What I would like to see us go with this at some point is to really have a multi-pronged approach — the player development side, certainly the skill development, and off-the-field development. You really can utilize that summer time. There’s so many aspects to baseball that go beyond the field that can help a player develop, that we’d really like to be toward the forefront of that.”

The league added new teams in Jackson, Tennessee, and Marion, Illinois for this season. The variety of markets, Brauer said, could be a financial benefit to the entire league.

“If you’re a business in Burlington, you’re going to advertise with the Bees,” Brauer said. “I think from a national level, the diversity of our markets, with the fact that we span across seven states, the more exposure that we can get to showcase our players, I think that that can help the revenue side.

“There’s only so much to go around, let’s be realistic. Between the summer leagues and minor league baseball, it’s competitive. But I think if we can find those revenue sources that can help us to just supplement our teams, that’s huge at the end of the day.”

Photo: Prospect League commissioner David Brauer speaks during Friday’s Burlington Bees/Friends Of Community Field Winter Banquet at the Pzazz Events Center. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

Bees Open 2023 Season At Home

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

The Burlington Bees will open the 2023 Prospect League season at home on May 31 against the Quincy Gems.

The Prospect League’s schedule was released Tuesday.

The Bees have back-to-back home games to open the season — they play on June 1 against the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp.

The 2023 schedule will feature 17 teams playing 60 games in 67 days in the college wood-bat league. The league has teams in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

Two new teams will join the league this season — the Jackson (Tenn.) Rockabillys and a team in Marion, Ill., that has not been named. The West Virginia Miners will be dormant this season.

The Bees will play in the Western Conference’s Great River Division again this season. The division includes the Gems, Pistol Shrimp and Clinton LumberKings. The Rockabillys and the Marion team will play in the Western Conference’s Prairie Land Division along with the Alton River Dragons, Cape Catfish and O’Fallon Hoots.

The Normal CornBelters, who were in the same division with the Bees in the last two seasons, move to the Eastern Conference’s Wabash River Division along with the Danville Dans, Terre Haute REX and Springfield Lucky Horseshoes.

Champion City, Chillicothe, Johnstown and Lafayette are in the Ohio Valley Division.

Among the other features of the Bees’ schedule:

• They will play a six-game homestand from June 24-29, with single games against Illinois Valley and Jackson and two games against O’Fallon and Springfield.

• The Bees will have a July 3 home game against Clinton. They will play July 4 at Clinton.

• They will play a seven-games-in-six-days road trip from July 11-16 with the first road trips to Champion City and Johnstown, a single game in Lafayette, and a doubleheader in Normal.

• They play six of their last seven games at home.

Photo: The Burlington Bees celebrate a walk-off win over the Cape Catfish on June 25 last season. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

Santiago Named Prospect League All-Star

By John Bohnenkamp

Burlington Bees designated hitter Kevin Santiago was named to the Prospect League’s Western Conference All-Star team on Monday.

Santiago was the only Bees player selected to the team. He hit .307 and had a .927 OPS this season.

Santiago, who played at Texas Wesleyan University, was in his second season with the Bees. He tied for third in the league with 10 home runs, and was eighth in runs batted in with 49. He was 14th in the league in hitting, eighth in slugging percentage (.536) and 22nd in on-base percentage (.391).

Also named to the Western Conference team was Clinton catcher Cade Moss, who plays at Iowa. Moss hit .319 in 29 games with the LumberKings.

Alton’s Eddie King Jr., was named the league’s player of the year. King, who plays at Louisville, hit .310 with 15 home runs and 49 RBIs. He had a 1.072 OPS, and had 31 stolen bases.

Danville’s Khal Stephen, a pitcher from Purdue, was named the pro prospect of the year. Stephen was 4-0 with a 2.02 ERA, striking out 36 in 26 ⅔ innings.

Another Danville pitcher, Josh Leerssen, was named the starting pitcher of the year. He was 5-0 in nine starts with a 0.75 earned run average, striking out 67 in 48 innings.

Danville’s Landon Tomkins was the fireman of the year, with a 3-1 record and six saves. He struck out 40 in 30 ⅔ innings, and had an 0.88 ERA.

Danville’s Eric Coleman was named manager of the year.

Photo: Kevin Santiago was named to the Prospect League Western Conference All-Star team on Monday. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

THE MONDAY HIVE: A Look Back At The Bees In 2022

By John Bohnenkamp

It was a great start.

And at one point in the second half, they were in first place in their division.

But the 2022 Prospect League season for the Burlington Bees was an education for the manager as well as the players.

The Bees went 20-39 overall — 11-20 the first half, 9-19 the second half.

But manager Owen Oreskovich hopes the season was a teaching moment for his players.

“I think they learned,” Oreskovich said. “Every kid that’s left here, they’ve told me they’ve had a fantastic time, and wished we could have done better, and they could have done better. I wish we could have, too.”

There were flashes of success with this team, starting with the 15-5 win over the Quincy Gems in the season opener at Community Field.

But there were also long losing streaks — a five-game one after the opening win, a six-game streak midway through the first half, and a nine-game one after they had a 1 ½-game lead in their division in the second half — that proved costly.

Those streaks, especially an early one, were just part of the lessons of the season.

“We had a great first night,” Oreskovich said. “Sometimes things don’t go your way, and you don’t attack it. And if you don’t attack it, it might not go your way for a while.”

Oreskovich pointed to the team’s inexperience.

“We had a young team,” Oreskovich said. “Either a young team, or guys that haven’t played college ball yet. All you can ask these guys is to try their best. Some of them didn’t even play college ball this year. This was it for them (since) last summer. It’s tough for those kids to get into (a rhythm).”

There were plenty of individual success stories with this team.

• Kevin Santiago, in his second season with the team, hit .307, ranking 14th in the league. His 10 home runs tied for third in the league, and he ranked eighth in runs batted in (41), slugging percentage (.536) and hits (55).

• Marcos Sanchez, also in his second season, had a .536 slugging percentage. He was second on the team with six home runs.

• Outfielder Sam Monroe anchored the leadoff spot for the team for much of the season. His 37 walks tied for second in the league. He also had a .425 on-base percentage.

• First baseman Ryan Grace, a player who redshirted this season as a freshman, led the team with a .340 average.

• Catcher Chase Honeycutt batted .308.

• Outfielder A.J. Henkle, who missed most of his college season with an injury, hit a grand slam to end the season opener. He hit .262 with a team-high 10 doubles.

• Outfielder Spencer Nivens, who played just the first month of the season after helping Missouri State to the NCAA regional, hit .315 in just 13 games.

• Outfielder Lincoln Riley, who missed all but the final weeks of the season with an ankle injury, hit .246 in 18 games.

• Nick Tampa was the do-it-all for the team. He could play the outfield, but was especially effective as a relief pitcher, with a 2-2 record with 33 strikeouts in 26 ⅓ innings. He had a team-high 14 appearances in relief.

• Jeron Conner, a local player who joined the team late in the season, had a 2-1 record with a 2.91 earned run average. Opposing hitters batted .167 against him.

• Steven Escarcega, who redshirted this season as a freshman at Hawaii Pacific, was 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA.

• Owen Rice struck out 18 in 8 ⅔ innings.

• David Theriot, who joined the team in the final three weeks, struck out 18 in 9 ⅔ innings.

• C.J. Lewis, who threw just three innings at Toledo this season, carried a big workload in the bullpen, striking out 32 in 36 ⅔ innings. He threw six innings in relief to get the win in a 2-1 victory over the Cape Catfish on June 25. Opposing batters hit .198 against him.

Oreskovich said he appreciated his team’s effort.

“What I will say about the guys we had here this summer was they’ll compete,” he said. “They work hard — they’re in the gym over there (in the Bees’ hitting building), they’re in (the batting cage), they’re at the Y working out, they’re taking extra ground balls, extra swings, whenever they can. They’re trying to get better.

“They’re all learning. I’m still learning. I’ve learned a lot this summer, learned some things from different guys. They’ve learned, hopefully, quite a bit from me that they can take into their careers. I had fun. I don’t like losing. I hate losing more than I like winning. But it was fun.”

THE FINAL NUMBERS

(League ranking in parentheses)

Record: 20-39

11-20 first half
9-19 second half
15-15 home
5-24 road
8-6 one-run

Attendance: 29,320 (6th)

BATTING

Average: .236 (16th)

On-base percentage: .361 (14th)

Slugging: .331 (16th)

Runs: 306 (15th)

Hits: 442 (15th)

Doubles: 79 (t-12th)

Triples: 8 (t-13th)

Home runs: 28 (t-14th)

Runs batted in: 264 (14th)

Walks: 306 (4th)

Strikeouts: 550 (t-15th)

Stolen bases: 65 (15th)

Caught stealing: 16 (3rd)

PITCHING

ERA: 6.88 (15th)

Hits: 575 (15th)

Runs: 432 (16th)

Earned runs: 370 (16th)

Walks: 334 (14th)

Strikeouts: 426 (t-14th)

Strikeouts/9 innings: 7.92 (13th)

Home runs: 35 (t-6th)

FIELDING

Percentage: .952 (t-13th)

Double plays: 39 (t-4th)

Errors: 98 (12th)

Photo: The Burlington Bees celebrate Chase Honeycutt’s walk-off hit in a win this season. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

RIVER DRAGONS 6, BEES 5: The Finale Goes A Little Longer

By John Bohnenkamp

The Burlington Bees weren’t ready to say goodbye to the 2022 Prospect League season at Community Field.

They got two extra innings in before it was over.

The home part of the Bees’ schedule ended with a 6-5 loss in 11 innings to the Alton River Dragons on Thursday.

The Bees forced extra innings with single runs in the eighth and ninth innings, kept the game going with a run in the bottom of the 10th after Alton had taken a 5-4 lead, and then couldn’t rally again in the 11th.

“I’m super-proud of these guys, especially the guys who have stuck it out all season,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said. “I’m proud of the guys. They fought the whole game. It wasn’t easy, they could have given up just like that. But you could tell that they wanted to give these fans one last hurrah there.”

The final out came with the hitter Oreskovich wanted at the plate — Kevin Santiago. Santiago, one of the league’s best hitters this season, had a two-out RBI single in the eighth to cut the lead to 4-3, then flied out with the winning run on third base with two outs in the ninth.

Santiago had a chance to keep the game going with Jaden Hackbarth at first base. Santiago hit a line drive up the middle that looked headed for center field, but Alton second baseman Cameron Hailstone was positioned perfectly, fielding the ball on one hop before throwing to first to end the game.

“We tried,” Oreskovich said. “Couldn’t get a knock there at the end.”

The Bees were down to their last out in the ninth inning with Charlie Terrill on second base. Catcher Cedric Dunnwald, playing in his first game, looped a single into center field, allowing Terrill to score.

Down 5-4 in the 10th, Burlington tied the game again on Nolan Elmore’s single that scored Pat McGinn from second base.

Alton scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th on Hailstone’s sacrifice fly.

The Bees had 12 hits. Lincoln Riley had three and reached base five times. Santiago, Marcos Sanchez, Elmore and Terrill each had two.

Erik Broekemeier (1-1) was the winning pitcher. Karen Reardon got the save.

Bobby Helt (0-1) took the loss.

The Bees close the season with games Friday and Saturday at Quincy. Asked how important it would be to get a win or two to end the season, Oreskovich said, “It would be huge, especially for the guys who have been here the whole time who are sticking it out the last two games. It would be good for them, go home on a higher note.”

Photo: Marcos Sanchez (left) is greeted by Bees manager Owen Oreskovich after hitting a two-run home run. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)