Salt Lake Loses Early Lead, Drops Series Finale Against Reno
In what turned out to be their second wild game in as many days, the Salt Lake Bees dropped their series finale against the Reno Aces on Sunday afternoon, failing to hold on to a big early advantage and falling by a final score of 8-7. After scoring six runs
In what turned out to be their second wild game in as many days, the Salt Lake Bees dropped their series finale against the Reno Aces on Sunday afternoon, failing to hold on to a big early advantage and falling by a final score of 8-7.
After scoring six runs in the ninth inning of their last game, Salt Lake put another six spot up on the scoreboard in the opening frame of Sunday’s contest to take control of things right from the jump. Hunter Dozier got things started in the inning with a two-out single up the middle to bring home Salt Lake’s first run, and Cole Tucker followed that up with a base hit of his own to give the team its first lead of the afternoon. Chad Wallach and Elliot Soto then tagged back-to-back home runs immediately after this, giving the Bees a commanding 6-1 lead and chasing Reno starter Konnor Pilkington from the game after just two-thirds of an inning.
JACKS pic.twitter.com/L4AlCPidBi
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) April 21, 2024
Much like the Bees did on Saturday, however, the Aces started steadily chipping away at their early deficit. They got their own comeback effort started in the third inning, cutting Salt Lake’s lead down to two thanks to a pair of home runs by Andres Chaparro and Adrian Del Castillo off of starter Brett Kerry, and they continued it in the sixth with an RBI base hit again off the bat of Del Castillo. This brought Reno to within one once the seventh rolled around, and with one out in the inning, they tied things up on a bases loaded hit-by-pitch from Kolten Wong and then took their first lead since the game’s opening frame on a base hit by Juan Corniel.
The Bees did not go quietly from here, knotting things up once again in the bottom half of the seventh courtesy of a two-out RBI single by Willie Calhoun. This did not hold, though, as Chaparro blasted his second longball of the day 469 feet to left-center field off of reliever Jimmy Herget to put Reno in front once again. This lead held for good, with Andrew Saalfrank and Christian Montes De Oca preventing a repeat of Saturday by retiring Salt Lake in order in the final two innings to slam the door shut.
The Bees will now hit the road, heading to the Lone Star State to take on the Round Rock Express for six games. The opening game of that series will take place on Tuesday, with the first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m.