Salt Lake Powers Way to Third Straight Win Over Sacramento

The Salt Lake Bees took down the Sacramento River Cats again on Friday evening, emerging victorious by a final score of 7-5 for their third straight win and their ninth over Sacramento in 13 tries this season

For the second game in a row, the Bees offense jumped all over Sacramento pitching early and often, hanging seven runs on the board after putting up a 10 spot on Thursday. The outburst started in the game’s opening frame, with Salt Lake pushing two across the plate on an RBI single up the middle by Michael Stefanic immediately followed by a run-scoring double down the left field line by Charles Leblanc. The bats picked things back up in the fourth, with Elliot Soto coming through with an RBI double of his own into the corner in left to put the team up by a score of 3-2.

Back in front ✔️

Elliot Soto puts us up once again with a double into the corner in left! pic.twitter.com/ue2AxC1D1r

— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) July 13, 2024

From here, the Bees did the remainder of their damage via the long ball, tagging three home runs in the middle innings to further build their advantage. Starting the homer binge in the bottom of the fifth was Jake Marisnick, who managed to just clear the wall in right field for a solo shot, his third home run of the season and his first at Smith’s Ballpark. Two batters later, Leblanc joined in on the fun, crushing a full-count fastball from Carson Ragsdale 466 feet off the batter’s eye for a two-run homer that brought Salt Lake’s lead up to four. Finally, Leblanc struck again to cap off the scoring in the seventh, this time taking a 1-0 slider from Kolton Ingram and depositing it 437 feet onto the berm in left for his second dinger of the day and his ninth of the season.

Second homer of the inning is a no-doubter 🤯

Charles Leblanc goes 466 FEET to dead center for a two-run blast to put us up four! pic.twitter.com/T4zNY42JRT

— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) July 13, 2024

This steady flow of offense gave Bees starter Zach Plesac a cushion to work with that he took full advantage of, as he managed to put together a quality start in what was his second outing since returning to Salt Lake on July 2. The righty made it through six complete innings, allowing just a pair of runs on five hits while striking out three and walking two. Plesac seemed prime to go even deeper than this as well, but an injury suffered during warmups prior to the seventh forced him out of the game in favor of Tayron Guerrero, who made it through the frame with no issues. The River Cats made things interesting in the eighth by tagging a pair of home runs off of Guillo Zuñiga to cut Salt Lake’s lead down to just two, but José Marte cut this comeback effort short in the final frame, stranding the tying run on base with a clutch strikeout to secure the win and pick up his sixth save of the season.

The Bees will now try to lock up the series victory with their fourth win in a row on Saturday night, with Reid Detmers starting things off on the mound opposite Carson Whisenhunt for first pitch at 6:35 p.m.