Bees second baseman Nolan Fontana attempts to tag out Sacramento River Cats Drew Stubbs.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (April 12, 2017) – The Salt Lake Bees used clutch defense and timely hitting to secure their first home win of the season, defeating the Sacramento River Cats 4-1 Wednesday night at Smith’s Ballpark.
“It was a good effort on the mound by all of our guys, and we put up enough runs in (the fifth) inning to make (the lead) hold,” Bees manager Keith Johnson said.
Salt Lake turned four double plays in the first six innings to back starting pitcher Manny Banuelos, who scattered seven hits over five and two-thirds innings and became the first Bees starter to earn a victory this season. In relief of Banuelos Jose Valdez tied a career-high with five strikeouts and Austin Adams collected a four-out save to finish off the River Cats.
Kaleb Cowart
Offensively, the Bees did all of their damage in a four-run fifth inning. After Kaleb Cowart singled home Matt Williams to open the scoring, Rey Navarro gave Salt Lake some insurance with a three-run homer down the right field line. With Navarro’s homer, at least one Bee has gone yard in each of the last five games. Cowart led the Bees with two hits and Dustin Ackley extended his season-opening hitting streak to seven games with a fourth-inning single.
Dustin Ackley
The Bees have two games remaining in their four-game set against the River Cats, Thursday and Friday at 6:35 PM. Friday night’s contest marks the first fireworks game of the season at Smith’s Ballpark. Tickets and more information is available at www.slbees.com.
| Sacramento River Cats | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG* |
| Kelby Tomlinson | 2B | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | .320 |
| Drew Stubbs | CF | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .222 |
| Jae-Gyun Hwang | 3B | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | .258 |
| Justin Ruggiano | DH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .158 |
| a- Wynton Bernard | PH-DH | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 |
| Kyle Blanks | 1B | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .217 |
| Carlos Moncrief | RF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .368 |
| Austin Slater | LF | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .345 |
| Eliezer Zambrano | C | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .375 |
| Orlando Calixte | SS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 |
| b- Christian Arroyo | PH-SS | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .467 |
| Totals | 46 | 12 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 10 | .276 | |
2B: Moncrief 2 (2, Gagnon, D, Ege); Hwang (2, Gagnon, D); Slater (2, Pounders); Tomlinson (1, Ege).
HR: Slater (1, 6th inning off Pounders, 1 on, 1 out).
TB: Hwang 2; Moncrief 5; Arroyo 3; Zambrano, E; Blanks 2; Tomlinson 4; Slater 6; Stubbs 2.
RBI: Moncrief (4); Hwang 2 (5); Blanks (4); Slater 2 (8); Zambrano, E (1); Tomlinson 3 (3).
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Ruggiano; Calixte; Hwang 3; Bernard 2.
Team RISP: 9-for-23.
Team LOB: 9.
BASERUNNING
SB: Stubbs (1, 2nd base off Gagnon, D/Sanchez, T); Bernard (1, 2nd base off Gagnon, D/Sanchez, T).
FIELDING
E: Calixte (1, fielding); Arroyo (1, throw).
DP: 2 (Tomlinson-Calixte-Blanks; Tomlinson-Arroyo-Blanks).
| Salt Lake Bees | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG |
| Eric Young Jr. | CF | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .289 |
| Kaleb Cowart | 3B | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | .351 |
| Dustin Ackley | DH | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .306 |
| Nolan Fontana | 2B | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .286 |
| Shane Robinson | LF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .407 |
| Ramon Flores | RF | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .409 |
| Tony Sanchez | C | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .100 |
| Sherman Johnson | 1B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .136 |
| Matt Williams | SS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | .250 |
| Totals | 35 | 10 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 5 | .284 | |
2B: Cowart (2, Beede); Young Jr. (1, Osich).
3B: Robinson, S (1, Osich).
HR: Young Jr. (1, 1st inning off Beede, 0 on, 0 out).
TB: Young Jr. 7; Johnson, S; Robinson, S 5; Cowart 3; Flores, R; Ackley.
RBI: Young Jr. 2 (3); Williams, M 2 (4); Cowart 3 (7); Sanchez, T (3).
2-out RBI: Cowart 3; Young Jr..
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cowart; Ackley.
SAC: Sanchez, T; Johnson, S; Williams, M.
GIDP: Fontana; Flores, R.
Team RISP: 4-for-10.
Team LOB: 5.
FIELDING
E: Williams, M 2 (2, fielding, throw).
| Sacramento River Cats | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA* | |||
| Tyler Beede | 4.0 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 6.30 | |||
| Chase Johnson | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.70 | |||
| Josh Osich (BS, 1)(W, 1-0) | 1.0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.25 | |||
| Kyle Crick (S, 1) | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | |||
| Totals | 9.0 | 11 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 4.10 | |||
| Salt Lake Bees | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |||
| Drew Gagnon | 5.0 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 9.39 | |||
| Brooks Pounders (BS, 1) | 2.0 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2.57 | |||
| Cody Ege (L, 0-2) | 2.0 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 12.79 | |||
| Totals | 9.0 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 5.51 | |||
Game Scores: Beede 25; Gagnon, D 48.
WP: Beede 3; Osich; Gagnon, D; Pounders.
Pitches-strikes: Beede 78-41; Johnson, C 31-19; Osich 25-16; Crick 10-6; Gagnon, D 76-46; Pounders 55-34; Ege 40-26.
Groundouts-flyouts: Beede 8-0; Johnson, C 3-6; Osich 3-0; Crick 1-0; Gagnon, D 5-4; Pounders 2-1; Ege 2-1.
Batters faced: Beede 21; Johnson, C 10; Osich 8; Crick 3; Gagnon, D 22; Pounders 15; Ege 11.
Inherited runners-scored: Ege 2-0.
Ejections: Sacramento River Cats designated hitter Justin Ruggiano ejected by HP umpire John Libka (1st)
Umpires: HP: John Libka. 1B: Alex Ziegler. 3B: Bryan Fields.
Weather: 52 degrees, cloudy.
Wind: 8 mph, L to R.
First pitch: 6:38 PM.
T: 3:04.
Att: 7,637.
Venue: Smith’s Ballpark.
April 14, 2017