Salt Lake Powers Past Aviators

The Salt Lake Bees slugged their way to a 9-4 victory at Las Vegas Ballpark against the Aviators on Friday night as five different Bees recorded multi-hit performances.

The Bees offense was firing on all cylinders against Aviators pitching, racking up 14 hits while using four home runs to jump ahead of Las Vegas. The Bees tallied nine runs on Friday, nearly matching their run total from the previous three games that totaled 11 runs. Chad Wallach led the way at the dish, going 3-for-5 with his fourth and fifth homers of the season and driving in three Bees. Jason Martin and Keston Hiura also cleared the fences in Las Vegas as Hiura’s big fly was his third in four games since joining the team on Tuesday. Brandon Drury, Martin, Jordyn Adams, Elliot Soto, and Wallach all swung the bat with confidence and tallied multi-hit games.

Davis Daniel (W, 4-4) put together another strong outing for the Bees and tacked on another quality start, his fourth of the season. Daniel hurled 6.2 innings, allowing one run on six hits while walking three and punching out eight to tie his season-high for the third time. Daniel gave up just one extra-base hit as the lone run he allowed came after a leadoff double by Ryan Noda. Tyler Thomas entered in relief of Daniel with two outs in the seventh inning and retired the only batter he saw. Luis Ledo made his 2024 Bees debut in the eighth inning, three runs to score on four hits, with just two of the runs earned. Kenyon Yovan slammed the door on the Aviators and evened up the series with a scoreless ninth inning.

Osvaldo Bido (L,4-3) got the start for Las Vegas and pitched just 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits and five runs. Jack O'Loughlin relieved Bido and fired 3.2 innings while giving up four Salt Lake runs. Adrian Martinez was the final Aviators’ arm to enter the game and pitched a clean ninth inning.

The Bees started the scoring with a bang in the second inning, tagging four runs as Jason Martin sent a home run over the fence in left field to drive in the first run, his seventh of the season. Adams followed with a single to center field and advanced to second on a defensive interference before Soto drove in Adams with an RBI single to left field and advanced to third on a throwing error by Tyler Nevin in left field. Wallach lifted the second home run of the inning with a two-run shot to left field, giving the Bees a 4-0 advantage. The scoring continued later in the fifth inning with Elliot Soto driving in two more runs with a two-out RBI single to center field with the bases loaded after Drury and Martin both singled and Hiura walked.

Wallach took flight again in the sixth inning with a leadoff home run to give Salt Lake a 7-0 lead. Later in the inning, Miguel Sano recorded a two-out walk and scored after Martin lined a double to give the Bees their eighth run. Hiura kept the Bees’ bats buzzing with a solo home run to lead off the seventh inning and extended the lead to nine runs.

Keston Hiura is really loving this whole @SaltLakeBees thing...

The @Angels infielder thumps his third homer in his first four games with the club. pic.twitter.com/Nki0XmS2Zs

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) June 15, 2024

The Aviators got to Daniel in the seventh inning after Noda slashed a leadoff double and came around to score after Drew Lugbauer punched a two-out knock into center field. Las Vegas scored the rest of their three runs in the eighth inning with Lawrence Butler and Armando Alvarez recording doubles and Tyler Nevin and Carlos Perez driving in runs with singles.

With the series evened up, the Bees and the Aviators will meet again tomorrow night at Las Vegas Ballpark for an 8:05 p.m. first pitch as Brett Kerry and J.T. Ginn will pitch.

SLASH TOWN 💦😱

Chad Wallach mashes his second homer of the game into the center field pool to make it 7-0! pic.twitter.com/HPZy31O3Q7

— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) June 15, 2024