Salt Lake Gets Shut Out in Series Opener Against Sacramento

The Salt Lake Bees came back to Smith’s Ballpark with a loss against the Sacramento River Cats on Tuesday evening, falling in the series opener by a final score of 13-0.

Despite it being the Bees return to Salt Lake, it was the visitors that came out swinging at the plate, with the River Cats putting up two separate five spots over the course of the night. Sacramento’s outburst began just four batters into the game, when David Villar came up with a pair of runners on base and doubled off the wall against Salt Lake starter Luis Ledo to bring both home and give the team a 2-0 lead with just one out on the board. To follow this up, Hunter Bishop singled through the right side to bring home another, and Trenton Brooks capped things off with a double right down the right field line to score two more and make it 5-0 in favor of the River Cats. The next offensive explosion came in the final frame against reliever Corey Knebel, starting with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Villar. Brooks came up after this and crushed a two-run home run, which was then followed by a single by Donovan Walton for his fourth RBI of the night. To cap things off, Christian Koss picked up an RBI knock of his own off of position player Shane Matheny to finish the scoring at a baker’s dozen.

Things did not go nearly as well on the other side for the Bees, as the team managed just a pair of hits all night long and were shut out for just the sixth time all year. The first of these knocks came in the bottom of the fourth, when Willie Calhoun broke a stretch of 11 consecutive batters retired by Sacramento starter Trevor McDonald by roping a double into the corner in right. The next one came one inning later, with Bryce Teodosio finding the other corner for his PCL-leading 12th triple of the season. This would be it for both hits and baserunners, though, as McDonald finished six innings with just those blemishes and the duo of Spencer Howard and Austin Warren finished things off after with three perfect innings of relief.

The Bees will now try to shake off the tough loss and bounce back against the River Cats on Wednesday, with José Suarez getting the assignment for Salt Lake against lefty Carson Whisenhunt for first pitch at 6:35 p.m.