PCL Salt Lake Bees

Series Preview: Bees Host Aces

Published on August 19, 2021 under Pacific Coast League (PCL)
Salt Lake Bees News Release


The 42-47 Salt Lake Bees finished a five-game home series with the Sacramento River Cats and are hosting the 53-37 Reno Aces six-games. The Bees were scheduled to face off against Sacramento for six-games, but intense rain on Tuesday cancelled the last game of the series. An official makeup date has yet to be determined.

Aside from the rain the Bees had a fantastic series playing phenomenal baseball on both offense and defense. Salt Lake took it to the River Cats and won four of the five games outscoring Sacramento 32-25. Several new additions to the Bees roster had break out performances against the River Cats and were a huge piece of Salt Lake's success.

Outfielder Dalton Pompey was called up to the Bees from the Rocket City Trash Pandas on July 31st and started every game of the series. He showed out against the River Cats batting eight for 18 (.444 .avg) with two doubles, two RBI and reached base safely 11 times. On Saturday Pompey went three for five with an RBI and accounted for one run. Pompey has a .417 batting average and a .500 OBP in the month of August.

Catcher Chad Wallach was added to the Salt Lake Bees on August 8th after being claimed off the waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers. He started four games against the River Cats and got a hit in every game with three multi-hit games. Wallach had eight hits on 14 at-bats (.571 .avg) with two doubles, one home run, three RBI and reached base safely 11 times (.786 OBP). On Saturday he was a perfect three for three with a double, a home run, one RBI, accounted for three runs and walked twice. Wallach has a .321 batting average with a .536 slugging percentage in August.

Jose Rojas continued his hot streak and was putting up numbers game after game against Sacramento. He batted seven for 22 (.318 .avg) with three doubles and five RBI. Rojas clutched up and ended Saturday's game in walkoff fashion with a rocket hitt off the center field wall that scored Pompey from third base and Matt Thaiss from second. The Bees won Saturday's game 9-8 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Rojas finished the night going four for six with two doubles, two RBI and accounted for one run.

The Bees bullpen was dominating the River Cats all series and were carving up hitters every night.

On Monday the Bees threw a combined two hitter and finished the game with 12 strikeouts. Packy Naughton started the game and pitched 3.2 hitless innings without allowing a runner and struckout three hitters.

Jake Petricka relieved Naughton with two outs in the fourth inning and was shoving. Petricka threw 2.1 innings and struck out five consecutive batters, one shy of the Bees franchise record. Petricka continued the no-hitter after taking down eight batters and his five strikeouts are a season high.

Jose Marte replaced Petricka in the seventh inning and retired four straight but gave up an infield hit in the eighth ending the no-hitter. Marte got out of the eighth inning and was replaced by Ben Rowen in the ninth. Rowen threw one inning and gave one hit to end the game. Petricka got the win (5-1) and the Bees won Saturday's game 6-0.

The Reno Aces wrapped up a six-game road Series against the El Paso Chihuahuas and went 4-2 in the series, out scoring El Paso 50-37. The Aces are coming into Smith's Ballpark in first place in the West Division of Triple-A West and have the most Wins in Triple-A West.

Reno's Outfielder Henry Ramos is coming into this series swinging at hot bat with the best batting average (.366) in Triple-A. In the Ace's last series Ramos went 5 for 16 (.313 .avg) two doubles, one homerun, four RBI. Ramos has a .431 on base percentage this season with a .574 slugging percentage.

Right handed pitcher Luis Frias is the probable starter for the Aces in the first game of the series. He's recorded a 5.26 ERA and 5-6 record on the season. Frias pitched five innings in his last outing and gave up four earned runs on five hits with eight strikeouts. He's recorded 78.2 innings pitched and has given up 69 hits with 91 strikeouts on the season.

The first game of the series between the Reno Aces and the Salt Lake Bees gets underway at 6:35 @ Smith's Ballpark on Tuesday August 19.

Check out the Salt Lake Bees Statistics

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Pacific Coast League Stories from August 19, 2021


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