Salt Lake Struggles Continue Against Sugar Land
The Salt Lake Bees were downed by the Sugar Land Space Cowboys for the sixth consecutive game by a score of 8-4 on Sunday at Smith’s Ballpark, marking the first time the Bees were swept at home since June 1, 2021, against Round Rock. The Bees were off to an
The Salt Lake Bees were downed by the Sugar Land Space Cowboys for the sixth consecutive game by a score of 8-4 on Sunday at Smith’s Ballpark, marking the first time the Bees were swept at home since June 1, 2021, against Round Rock.
The Bees were off to an encouraging start as Jordyn Adams smashed a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the first inning to give the home club an early edge. Sugar Land used a two-out rally in the third inning to take its first lead of the game as three straight Space Cowboys reached via a single and two hit batters to load the bases before Shay Whitcomb lined a single to center field, scoring two runs. Kyren Paris put on the black and yellow for the first time in his career on Sunday and quickly made his mark, lifting a solo home run to left field and tying the game at 2-2 in ensuing frame. Quincy Hamilton responded with a big fly of his own in the top of the fourth inning, giving Sugar Land a 3-2 lead with his ninth homer of the season. Continuing the back-and-forth affair, the Bees leveled the game once again in the home half of the fourth as Elliot Soto recorded a leadoff single and later advanced to second after a pickoff error. Jack Lopez followed with a fly out to right field, advancing Soto to third and setting up a Chad Wallach RBI single through the infield, scoring Soto. Both teams scored in the fifth inning as Sugar Land grabbed the lead back with a sacrifice fly off the bat of Shay Whitcomb while the Bees used a one-out bases-loaded walk drawn by Niko Goodrum to knot things up at 4-4. The Bees were unable to continue any further damage as the next two hitters were retired via a strikeout. The Space Cowboys used a pair of two-run innings to grab the series finale as Cooper Hummel doubled home a run and a throwing error by Paris allowed a run to score in the seventh inning. Whitcomb put the game away with a two-run home run in the ninth inning, his 13th of the season.
The Bees used four pitchers while the Space Cowboys totaled five arms with Travis MacGregor (L,0-4) taking the loss in relief and Conner Greene (W, 5-1) earning the win with a clean sixth inning appearance.
Salt Lake will head back to Sin City to face the Las Vegas Aviators for the second time this season on Tuesday at 8:05 p.m. MT. The Bees finished with a 3-3 split at Las Vegas Stadium in early April.