Salt Lake Drops Wednesday Matinee in El Paso
The Salt Lake Bees dropped their matinee contest against the El Paso Chihuahuas on Wednesday afternoon, falling by a final score of 8-4 after faltering late in the game. Things started about as well as they could have for the Bees on Wednesday, with the team jumping out to an
The Salt Lake Bees dropped their matinee contest against the El Paso Chihuahuas on Wednesday afternoon, falling by a final score of 8-4 after faltering late in the game.
Things started about as well as they could have for the Bees on Wednesday, with the team jumping out to an early lead and looking to be in control of things from the jump. Salt Lake got going at the plate in the top of the second inning, striking first on a two-out base hit by Cole Tucker and then adding two more soon after on a two-RBI bloop single off the bat of Willie Calhoun. After the Chihuahuas got on the board themselves in the bottom half of the inning via a Matthew Batten solo home run, the Bees answered right back with a run of their own in the fourth, scoring again when Calhoun brought home his third RBI of the day on a groundout that made it 4-1 in favor of the black and yellow.
Willie wants some more 💪
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) September 11, 2024
Calhoun drives in a pair with a bloop single and we've got an early 3-0 lead! pic.twitter.com/MGV0OLB0zh
From here, however, it was all El Paso, with the home team scoring seven unanswered runs against Salt Lake pitching to turn its three-run deficit into a four-run advantage that would hold for the rest of the game. The Chihuahuas started their outburst right after the Bees scored their final run, plating one in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run shot by Batten, his second longball of the day off of Salt Lake starter Davis Daniel that brought the Bees’ lead down to one. Tirso Ornelas would join the party in the sixth with a solo homer of his own against Daniel to level the score up at four apiece, and after this, the floodgates opened up once Daniel was lifted from the game in favor of new reliever Hayden Seig. The breakthrough came in the bottom of the seventh when Clay Dungan laced a line drive up the middle with two outs to give El Paso its first lead of the afternoon, and the knockout blow came in the next inning when Cal Mitchell took a 1-1 sinker from Seig and smoked it over the wall in right field for a three-run blast to put the team up by a game-high four runs. The Bees went quietly at the plate in the top of the ninth after this, wrapping up their first loss to the Chihuahuas in eight tries this year.
The Bees will now try to bounce back and continue their winning ways against El Paso in the third game of the series on Thursday, with righty John O’Reilly currently set to make his debut on the mound with Salt Lake for first pitch at 6:35 p.m.