By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Their manager had been ejected from the game.

They were down by seven runs, but they had at least five more innings at the plate.

“We were all in the dugout, like, ‘Let’s do something crazy. Let’s get nasty. Make it fun,’” said Burlington Bees coach Casey Sole, suddenly the acting manager for the rest of the game and soon to be the traffic cop for what may be the biggest run of the season.

Oh, it got crazy, with a nasty, perfectly executed defensive play in the top of the ninth inning and a whole lot of fun in the bottom of the inning.

Jeremy Figueroa’s two-out double into the right-center field gap scored Cedric Dunnwald with the winning run as the Burlington Bees rallied to defeat the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes 9-8 in Wednesday’s Prospect League game at Community Field.

The Bees (6-7 second half), trailing 8-7 in the ninth after being down 8-1 in the fifth inning, were down to their last strike when Dunnwald dumped a single into center field to score pinch-runner Jace Figuereo with the tying run.

Figueroa then worked a 3-2 count against Springfield reliever Gavin Erhardt (1-1) before drilling a line drive into the gap.

“I was just trying to get a pitch that I could hit hard,” Figueroa said. “Give myself a chance, give the team a chance. It definitely felt pretty good. As soon as I hit it, I knew I was going to get it into the gap. It was a great feeling, for sure.”

Dunnwald, running with the pitch, didn’t figure a stop sign would be coming at third base from Sole.

“I knew he hit it to right-center, and that the ball was down,” Dunnwald said. “The biggest thing I knew was I had to score. I didn’t know if it was going to go deep enough or not. I knew in that situation Casey was probably going to send me regardless. In my situation, I knew I had to go.”

“Oh yeah, without a doubt, I was sending him, no matter what,” Sole said.

Dunnwald easily got to the plate, then joined his teammates as they chased Figueroa in celebration.

“It was awesome to see the team come together for this win,” Sole said.

Dunnwald and Figueroa were the beginning and the end of the biggest defensive play of the game in the top of the ninth.

Springfield’s Tyler Butina drove a ball over Dunnwald’s head in center field. Dunnwald chased down the ball as it hit off the wall, and delivered a strong throw to cutoff man Bryce Brown, who whirled and threw the ball to third base. Figueroa then made the tag on Butina for the second out of the inning.

Dunnwald had been shaded toward left-center field because of the way the wind had been blowing earlier in the game. 

“Off the bat, he hit it high, and it kept going,” Dunnwald said. “My thought was to get to the ball, then hit my (cutoff). I threw a laser to Bryce Brown, and he did the rest. Initially, I thought we had no chance. I saw him rounding second as my ball went to Bryce. I thought it was going to be close, but I didn’t think we were going to get him. That throw must have been super-hard, because Jeremy got the ball and just laid on the tag.

“It was perfect.”

“It was just a beautiful play, a beautiful relay,” Figueroa said. “Ceddy got the ball in really quick, got it to Bryce Brown. Brownie made a perfect throw, honestly. Anywhere else, he’s probably safe. He made a perfect throw. Made my job easier.”

The Bees were down 8-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth when manager Owen Oreskovich was ejected from the game, arguing a called third strike on Figueroa.

That, Sole said, sent a message to the rest of the team.

“I think it started with Coach O firing them up,” Sole said. “He went out there and fired them up. He was fighting for them.”

What happened next was a four-run inning, and suddenly an 8-5 deficit looked a lot different.

“We were getting guys on base, getting guys in scoring position, so I felt like something good was going to come our way,” Dunnwald said.

“It was just a slow start,” Figueroa said. “Things didn’t go our way, but we stayed to the plan. Good pitching, timely hitting, and we got it done.”

Brady Richards gave the Bees four strong innings of relief, allowing just two runs while striking out four. Michael Schaul (1-1) pitched a scoreless ninth.

The Bees matched their win total for the first half, and are just 1 ½ games behind Clinton for the second-half playoff spot in the Western Conference’s Northwest Division.

“It shows how much we care, it shows how hard we compete,” Dunnwald said. “A lot of things didn’t go our way tonight, with the umpires and everything. But I think that helped us in a way.

“Any win we can get is going to carry momentum. This one was huge.”

Photo: Bees third baseman Jeremy Figueroa gets water dumped on him by Jace Figuereo after his game-winning double. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)

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)

By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Owen Oreskovich couldn’t help smiling.

“That,” the Burlington Bees’ manager said after Thursday’s Prospect League doubleheader sweep of the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes, “is how we should be playing baseball.”

The two wins — 6-4 in the first game, 3-1 in the second game — had all of the formula that Oreskovich has wanted out of his team this season.

It was timely hitting — Tanner Holland’s two-run single broke a 3-all tie in the fourth inning of the first game, and Brandon Bickford’s double into the left-center field gap broke a 1-all tie in the second game.

It was strong bullpen work — Jake Jakubowski struck out two of the three hitters he faced in the seventh to save the first game, and Chase Golden struck out five in two innings to get the win in the second game.

And it was about putting constant pressure on the Lucky Horseshoes — the Bees had runners on base in five of their six innings on offense in the first game, and in five of the six innings in the second game.

Suddenly the Bees (10-14), who gave up 26 runs in two losses to O’Fallon earlier in the week, have won three consecutive games since then, and have won five of their last seven.

“We call this a winning streak. Three is a winning streak,” Oreskovich said, laughing. “Glad we can finally get to that point. Everybody’s believing in each other now.”

The sound of winning echoed through the Bees’ clubhouse on a late night.

“You can hear it from down there,” Oreskovich said.

The losses early in the week seemed a long time ago, but there was a lesson in them.

“We were a little harsh when we had to be,” Oreskovich said. “Even teammate-wise, like, ‘Hey, you’re not doing what you’re doing, and you’ve got to do it.'”

Oreskovich knew, even after the losses to O’Fallon, that his pitching staff could come up with the key innings the Bees needed to win, and in this streak — and especially in this doubleheader — the mound work has been impressive.

Jeremy Fox (1-2) scattered eight hits over five innings to win the first game. Rem Maxwell walked four of the first eight hitters he faced to start the second game, but settled in to retire seven of the next eight hitters.

Golden (1-0), who came into the game with a 12.46 ERA, struck out the first two and last two hitters he faced before turning the game over to Drew Martin in the seventh, who got Springfield’s Patrick Graham to ground into a double play to end the game.

“We’ve been talking about how it looks like it’s right there for this staff,” Oreskovich said. “And tonight, it is there. A hell of a job by our staff.”

That kept the Bees in position for that key inning, and it came in the sixth. Bickford’s double scored Keanu Spenser from first base, then Bickford would score on Cedric Dunnwald’s single.

The same kind of inning happened in the first game, when Holland singled to bring in Drew Gaskins and Trent Rice. Holland then stole second and third, and scored on Connor Laeng’s single.

The Bees ended their longest homestand of the season with a winning streak, and momentum.

“I think it’s incredible for us, going forward as a team,” Oreskovich said.

NOTES: Bees shortstop Kooper Schulte left the first game after being hit on the left arm by a pitch. Schulte didn’t play in the second game. Coy Sarsfield, who was hit on the elbow in Wednesday’s win over Jackson, didn’t play in either game. … The doubleheader started an hour late because of travel issues for Springfield, caused by a line of storms that swept through central Illinois late Thursday morning and into the afternoon. “Their manager said they were getting ready to leave when the storms hit, and they had to shelter in the clubhouse,” Oreskovich said. The bus trip then took longer than expected because of detours caused by closed highways.

Photo: Burlington’s Jaden Hackbarth singles in the first inning of Thursday’s first game of a doubleheader at Community Field. (John Lovretta/bees-blog.com)