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Burlington Bees

Bees Beat Lansing in 12 for Fifth Straight Win

May 18, 2006 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Burlington Bees News Release


Burlington, IA (May 18, 2006) - Valentino Arce's two-out single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th inning brought in the game-winner as the Burlington Bees (17-21) extended their winning streak to five with a 2-1 win over the Lansing Lugnuts (23-17) at Community Field tonight. The Bees lead this series 3-0 with a chance to sweep the Lugnuts for the first time since 1999. At twelve innings, this was the Bees longest game of the season and the Bees have now won three straight games during free baseball to even their record at 3-3 in extra-inning games.

The Bees got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the third inning. Ethien Santana led off with a single, but was caught stealing. Josh Johnson followed with a base hit and Arce got an infield single on a hit and run play with Johnson racing for second. As the ball scooted past Anthony Hatch at third for the hit, it also got by the shortstop Jesus Gonzalez for an error that allowed Johnson to get to third. Arce then stole second, but was thrown out at third on Carlos Arroyo's groundball to shortstop that got Johnson in from third base. It was the only run against Lansing starter Russ Savickas, who struck out seven and walked four in six innings. Po-Hsuan Keng pitched a scoreless inning, Yesson Berroa worked three scoreless frames, and Joey McLaughlin (2-1) set the Bees down in order in the eleventh before giving up the game-winning run in the 12th.

Miguel Vega led off the bottom of the twelfth with a single for his second hit of the night and Jeremy Jirschele pinch-ran for him at first. Jeff Howell struck out trying to rying to bunt and pinch-hitter Kiel Thibault flew out to center. With two outs, Jirschele got the winning run into scoring position with a stolen base of second and moved to third on an infield single by Santana. With the count 2-0 on Johnson, Santana took second on defensive indifference and then Johnson drew his third walk to load the bases. After taking the first pitch for a strike, Arce grounded a ball in the hole between short and third out of the reach of a diving Gonzalez at shortstop to win the game.

Bees' starter Chris Nicoll allowed the only run in the top of the sixth. With one out, he walked Sean Shoffit. Shoffit stole second and advanced to third when the throw went off the glove of Johnson for his first error of the season. After Nicoll caught Brian Bormaster looking at strike three, Cory Patton fouled off three 3-2 pitches before lining a base-hit to center for the two-out RBI. Nicoll fanned seven on the game to tie Matt Kniginyzky for the team lead with 39 strikeouts. Kraig Schambough replaced Nicoll in the sixth and the inning ended with Patton getting thrown out trying to steal second. After a leadoff walk to Joey Metropoulos in the seventh, Schambough got a strikeout and a double play to end the inning and the Lugnuts never got another baserunner. Schambough worked through the eighth and hasn't allowed a run now in 12 innings. LH Gilbert De La Vara (2-1) was perfect through the final four innings and got the win. He has four saves and a win in his last five appearances and hasn't allowed a run in his last 15.1 innings.

The Bees send Kniginyzky (3-2, 3.10) to the mound tomorrow night in the series finale against RH Billy Carnline (3-1, 2.43) for Lansing. The gates will open at 5:30 for the rescheduled Community Basket Day with the winning ticket for this year's Iowa's Largest Community Basket to be drawn after the seventh inning. The game will be broadcast live on KBUR AM 1490 and KBKB AM 1360 with the pre-game show starting at 6:40.

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