MWL1 Burlington Bees

LumberKings Extend Bees Losing Streak

Published on May 8, 2007 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Burlington Bees News Release


Clinton, IA (May 8, 2007) - The Burlington Bees (12-18) remain winless on this road trip and the team's losing streak reaches five with a 9-2 loss to the Clinton LumberKings (19-11) at Alliant Energy Field tonight. A five-game losing streak matches the team's longest of the season and the Bees are now 5-16 in their last 21 games.

Clinton had to scratch their scheduled starter Broc Coffman because of a stomach virus and right-hander Jeremiah Harr stepped in to pitch. After three scoreless innings, the Bees broke the ice with the first run in the top of the fourth inning when Michael Thompson blasted his team-leading sixth home run of the year. Harr finished off the fourth without allowing any more runs.

Bees' starter Jason Godin came out a little bit shaky. In the bottom of the first, he hit a batter, walked two, and threw two wild pitches, but was able to strand the bases loaded and keep Clinton off the scoreboard. He went on to retire ten in a row going into the bottom of the fifth inning. In the fifth, Godin gave up a leadoff walk to Grant Gerrard and Wally Backman laced a single to right for Clinton's first hit of the game. After a strikeout of Marcus Lemon, Godin reached his pitch limit and gave way to Josh Cribb out of the bullpen. Craig Gentry singled to load the bases and Cribb walked Jose Vallejo to force in Clinton's first run. Chad Tracy followed with a two-run double to left to give the LumberKings a 3-1 lead. A wild pitch allowed Vallejo to score and KC Herren tripled to bring in Tracy and when the dust settled, Clinton sent nine men to the plate in the inning and scored five runs to take a 5-1 lead.

Tim Gudex (2-2), a former pitcher at the University of Iowa, took over for Harr in the fifth and worked 3.2 innings in relief to pick up the win. He allowed just one run in the top of the sixth. With two outs, he walked Kurt Mertins and Brady Everett doubled to the wall in right-center to bring Mertins around to score all the way from first. Gudex allowed a total of three hits and struck out seven. John Slusarz finished the final inning and a third and struck out one.

Backman extended the lead to 6-2 with a solo home run off of Cribb in the bottom of the sixth. Cribb also pitched the seventh before Chris Hayes took over for the bottom of the eighth. The LumberKings sent nine men to the plate and scored their final three runs against Hayes. Vallejo had an RBI triple, Tracy and RBI single, and Mauro Gomez plated the final run with a sacrifice fly. Godin (0-1) was charged with the two runs in the fifth that gave Clinton their first lead and suffered the loss.

The Bees and LumberKings square off one more time at Alliant Energy Field before the series shifts to Community Field on Thursday. LH Brent Fisher (0-3, 6.33) will start for the Bees tomorrow night against LH Mike Ballard (3-2, 5.55) for the LumberKings. Game time is 6:00 and the game will be broadcast live on KBUR AM 1490 and KBKB AM 1360 with the pre-game show starting at 5:45.

Check out the Burlington Bees Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Midwest League Stories from May 8, 2007


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