Bees' Offense Comes to Life in Series-Opening Win Over Express

Sports stats



PCL Salt Lake Bees

Bees' Offense Comes to Life in Series-Opening Win Over Express

August 21, 2024 - Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Salt Lake Bees News Release


The Salt Lake Bees returned to Smith's Ballpark on a high note on Tuesday evening, taking home the victory over the Round Rock Express in the opener of their series by the final score of 9-6.

The early goings of Tuesday's contest proved to be a back-and-forth affair, with the two teams trading blows early and often. The first punch was landed by Round Rock as soon as the opening bell rang, with leadoff hitter Justin Foscue jumping on a 3-1 fastball from Salt Lake starter Kenny Rosenberg and sneaking it just over the wall in left field for a solo home run that put the visitors on the board right away. One inning later, the Bees would answer back, with Elliot Soto bringing the score level once again with a bloop single into center that brought home the lead runner from second base. After this, the two teams exchanged home runs, with the Express getting their lead back on a two-run shot from Sandro Fabian in the top of the third and the Bees responding with a solo homer in the bottom half of the inning off the bat of Keston Hiura, his 20th longball in 36 games since coming to Salt Lake.

From here, the Bees threw the big haymaker of the game, piecing together a pair of crooked innings to take a lead big enough to last the rest of the night. The explosion began with a stroke of good fortune in the bottom of the fifth, when on a Jordyn Adams ground ball with the bases loaded and no one out, Round Rock third baseman Matt Duffy sailed his throw to second base into right field, allowing all three runners to come around and score and giving Salt Lake its first advantage of the night. Eric Wagaman followed this up with a sacrifice fly as the very next batter to bring the score up to 6-3 in favor of the home team, and two innings later, it was these two sparking the offense yet again, with Adams tripling home Charles Leblanc on a line drive into the corner in right and Wagaman smashing his first homer at Smith's Ballpark 442 feet into left to bring the Bees' run total up to nine on the night. Round Rock did manage to plate a trio of runs after this to make things more interesting, but in the final frame, Guillo Zuñiga nipped this rally in the bud to help secure the win for Salt Lake.

On the individual side, the Bees were paced by Hiura, who picked up four hits in his five at-bats. He was joined in the multi-hit column by Wagaman and Bryce Teodosio, who notched three knocks of his own, while the multi-RBI category was occupied by Wagaman and Adams. On the mound, Salt Lake got a quality start from Kenny Rosenberg, who shook off the early home runs to finish his day at three earned runs allowed across six full innings with seven strikeouts.

The Bees will now try to roll this performance into the second game of the series against the Express on Wednesday night, when a pair of former top 10 picks in Sam Bachman and Jack Leiter square off on the mound for first pitch at 6:35 p.m.

Check out the Salt Lake Bees Statistics

• Discuss this story on the Pacific Coast League message board...

Pacific Coast League Stories from August 21, 2024


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central