Bees Hold Off LumberKings 9-8

The Bees carried a 9-6 lead into the top of the ninth, and as it usually goes between these two teams, it got interesting.

The LumberKings tagged two Burlington relievers for two runs to bring Clinton within a run before Kyle Maurer shut them down, earning his fifth save of the season, and his second in as many nights.

Burlington trailed 6-2 heading in to the bottom of the sixth, dropped five runs on the LumberKings and took a lead they would not relinquish.

With one out in the home sixth Bees first baseman Ryan Grace drove a single to left to get things started. Right fielder AJ Henkle followed with a home run to right to make it 6-4.  Catcher Ben Tallman walked and advance on a wild pitch.  An out later shortstop Tucker Cole was hit by a pitch.  Center fielder Lincoln Riley drove Tallman home with a single to right.  Cole went to third.

Sam Monroe, who had already walked twice to extend his league lead to 35 free passes, also singled to right pushing Cole across.  Kevin Santiago flared an RBI single to right center field.  Riley scored on the play.  That capped the scoring in the frame with the Bees ahead 7-6.

They tacked on the proverbial insurance runs in the seventh.  Grace once again got things going, this time with a scorching shot that tied up Clinton first baseman Connor Giusti, bounding off him and rolling to the right field corner for a double.  He went to third on a Henkle fly out.

Clinton made a pitching change.  Ben Tallman greeted Nick Scanlon with a triple to the left center field wall.  Grace scored.  Dawson Estep plated Tallman on a single.  That pushed the score to 9-6.  For Bees fans, it was what they would need.

In the end, Hamilkar Medina (1-0) took the win in relief of Cauy Massner, who tossed four innings.  Medina allowed two runs on two hits over two innings.  Weston Fulk went two and a third.  He gave up two runs on no hits, but walked five.

Clinton second baseman Tyler Dahm had three runs batted in with a two run home run and an RBI walk.

The teams will meet a final time in Clinton on August 1^st.