Salt Lake Downed by Sugar Land in Tough Extra-Innings Loss
The Salt Lake Bees dropped their third game in a row to the Sugar Land Space Cowboys on Thursday evening, falling in a tough extra-innings loss by the final score of 3-2. From the very beginning of the game, it became clear that the fans in attendance would be treated
The Salt Lake Bees dropped their third game in a row to the Sugar Land Space Cowboys on Thursday evening, falling in a tough extra-innings loss by the final score of 3-2.
From the very beginning of the game, it became clear that the fans in attendance would be treated to a prototypical pitcher’s duel, with Salt Lake’s Zach Plesac and Sugar Land’s Ryan Gusto coming out of the gates with their best stuff. Through the first five innings of the game, Gusto allowed just a lone base knock to Zach Humphreys in the second, and Plesac outdid him by keeping the Space Cowboys out of the hit column entirely while surrendering his only baserunner on an error in the field. The first breakthrough of the night for either team came in the sixth, when the Bees finally got to Gusto and took the lead on a two-out RBI double off the bat of Michael Stefanic. The Space Cowboys answered back very soon after, though, with Shay Whitcomb jumping on a 1-0 fastball from Plesac and crushing it 463 feet off one of the light stanchions in left-center field to level things back up at one apiece.
Finally broke through 💪
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) June 7, 2024
Michael Stefanic's RBI double gives us the first run of the game in the bottom of the sixth! pic.twitter.com/iMrgxxwhvk
The score would stay knotted up through the end of regulation, with Plesac making it through 8.1 innings while allowing just the one earned run and striking out a season-high nine batters, and the trio of Dylan Coleman, Logan VanWey and Conner Greene keeping the Bees off the scoreboard in the the later innings on the other side. Once extras rolled around, the Space Cowboys finally got another big hit, with César Salazar driving home a pair with a double down the line in left field to give his team its first lead of the day. The Bees came close to matching this in the bottom half of the inning after Jordyn Adams drove home Salt Lake’s free runner, but with the bases loaded and one out, Sugar Land’s Bryan King got Niko Goodrum to ground into a double play to slam the door shut and stop the Bees’ rally dead in its tracks.
The Bees will now try to get in the win column against the Space Cowboys for the first time this series on Friday night, with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m.