After a rainout on Friday, the Liberal Bee Jays hosted the Denver Cougars for a three game series this weekend. Friday’s game was moved to Saturday for a doubleheader of two seven inning games and a brief rain shower on Sunday wasn’t enough to even delay the Sunday contest. So, after dropping the first game on Saturday to the Cougars 11-8, the Bee Jays picked up two league wins taking the series 2-1 moving their record to 3-1 on the season and 2-1 in the Rocky Mountain League.
The series started with a rough outing for starting pitcher, Easton Rogers, in game one Saturday afternoon. A six run first inning proved insurmountable despite a valiant comeback attempt by the Bee Jays. The Cougars only managed five more runs over the next six innings and the truncated game didn’t leave the Bee Jays enough time to complete the comeback as they scored a combined seven runs in the final two innings of game one. Offensively, the Bee Jays struggle early in game one leaving eight runners on base and scoring just one run in the first five innings before finding their rhythm late, the final was 11-8 in favor of the Cougars.
The Bee Jays were able to carry that momentum into game two on Saturday evening when starting pitcher, Alex Lora, held the Cougars scoreless in the first inning and leadoff hitter, Drew Grego, got things started immediately with a single in the first at-bat of game two. He followed that with a stolen base and the next batter, Landon Bruce, knocked him in with a double of his own. Bruce would score from third on a sacrifice fly from designated hitter Carson Willis to take a 2-0 lead after one inning. The Bee Jays kept it consistent after that adding one run in the second, three runs in the fourth, and two in the fifth. The high point for the Cougars in game two was a three-run second inning, their only runs of the game two. Bee Jays had the series even at the end of Saturday with the 8-3 win.
A rain rolled through Liberal 90 minutes before first pitch on Sunday, but preparation and perseverance got the game started just after 1:30 PM scheduled time. Then the sun came out and it was another beautiful day for baseball that concluded with another Bee Jay victory.
Starting pitcher, Braden Wipple, gave up two hits to start game three, but got out of the first inning without giving up a run by striking out the next three batters in a row. He would pitch three complete innings giving up two runs on four hits with a single walk to his six strikeouts. The Bee Jays got the bats rolling in the second inning after a scoreless first on offense with a three RBI triple from Drew Grego leading the way to a five run inning. The Bee Jays would add another four runs in the fifth and two in the sixth. The Bee Jay defense would bend, but not break giving up a combined five runs in the seventh and eigth innings getting the win 11-7 and taking the first league series of the season over the Cougars at Brent Gould Field.
The Bee Jays leave the weekend with a combined 3-1 record on the season and a 2-1 league clip in the early goings of this summer. They will have the 18U Liberal Rattlers for a fun exhibition on Wednesday, June 11th at Brent Gould Field and will be back to league action on Thursday evening when they start a four-game home series with the Game Day Angels.
