Bees Drop Second Straight Game to Space Cowboys

The Salt Lake Bees dropped the second game of a six-game series with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys on Wednesday night, losing 4-2 at Smith’s Ballpark for the second game in a row.

The game started off on the wrong foot on "Bark in the Park" night as Bees’ starting pitcher Kenny Rosenberg hurled just nine pitches before exiting with an injury while fielding a weak groundball to shortstop Elliot Soto. Salt Lake used five bullpen arms to finish the remaining 8.1 innings as Travis MacGregor, Amir Garrett, Kenyon Yovan, Bryan Shaw, and Jose Marte all made appearances. MacGregor (L, 0-3) earned the loss, allowing four runs on three hits across three complete innings.

Across the diamond, Eric Lauer (W, 1-0) fired five complete innings while allowing just one run on four hits and striking out three. The Space Cowboys also used five bullpen pitchers to close out the win, allowing just one run and one hit in the final four innings. Former Bee, Wander Suero slammed the door in dominant fashion, striking out the side to earn his 11th save of the season, tying him for the lead in all of Triple-A.

Sugar Land got the scoring started in the second inning with two runners coming across to score after Soto tried to start an inning-ending double play with runners on the corners and one out, but an error on a high toss and a fielding error from Jordyn Adams in right field gave the visiting club a 2-0 lead. Luke Berryhill doubled the Space Cowboys’ lead with a 2-run home run in the fourth inning, his sixth of the season. Salt Lake crossed the plate for its first run of the game in the fifth inning as Jack Lopez singled with one-out and later scored after a wild pitch and a two-out RBI single off the bat of Zach Humphreys pulled the Bees within three. Threatening in the top of the sixth inning, a leadoff triple was wiped away by Garrett as he retired three of the next four batters to hold an empty frame. The Bees tallied the last run of the game in the seventh inning as Drew Ellis walked to lead off the inning and Adams followed with a single to center field, but Salt Lake would only get one run from the threat on a Chad Wallach one-out fielder’s choice groundout and a throwing error that sailed into the Bees’ dugout by shortstop Grae Kessinger allowed for Lopez to score from second. The Bees loaded the bases in the frame but the Space Cowboys got a leaping snag from 1B Joey Loperfido to end the threat.

The Bees and the Space Cowboys will meet again tomorrow evening for game three at Smith’s Ballpark. Salt Lake will send out Zach Plesac to start on the hill while Ryan Gusto will make the start for Sugar Land.