Todd Cunningham and Jonathan Rodriguez
The Salt Lake Bees drilled the Memphis Redbirds on a night where every hit seemed to find a hole. Racking up 5 runs in the bottom of the first inning on back to back singles followed by back to back doubles, the Bees never looked back. Salt Lake took a command ing14-3 victory in the first of a four game series with Memphis.
Photo Rob Gray
The Bees were led by outfielder Todd Cunningham who went four-for-five on the night and every player in the lineup had at least one hit. The team had 21 hits overall including 8 of which were doubles.
The losing pitcher for Memphis was J.C. Sulbaran (2-5) who gave up 10 earned runs in 3 innings. He was officially only given 2 innings pitched as he was taken out in the third inning with no outs and relieved by Kurt Heyer who was able to close out the inning giving up a single run of his own.
Nate Smith – Photo Rob Gray
Bees pitcher Nate Smith (3-1) earned the win allowing seven hits and only two runs in six innings. Ramon Ramirez earned his first save of the year by throwing three innings, allowing only one run and one hit. Together, Ramirez and Smith combined for six strikeouts.
The night marked the first appearances at Smith’s Ballpark for infielder Ji-Man Choi who batted second and played first base. Anthony Bemboom started behind the plate for the Bees and caught two runners attempting to steal. Ryan Jackson played shortstop as opposed to his normal position of second base and batted ninth to round out the new additions to the team.
Ryan Jackson – Photo Rob Gray
Ji-Man Choi – Photo Rob Gray
Anthony Bemboom – Photo Rob Gray
The Bees will face the Redbirds again tomorrow night at Smith’s Ballpark at 6:35 p.m. with RHP Kyle McGowin (1-1) on the mound for Salt Lake going against RHP Jeremy Hefner for Memphis.