The Bee Jays are hosting the Denver Cougars for another three game home series and this one started just like the last one in early June, with a close loss for the Bee Jays. Here in late June; however, it was a defensive battle that resulted in a 3-2 Bee Jays loss. With the win, the Cougars even the season series at two apiece with two games still remaining.
The Cougars would jump out to an early one run lead in the first inning and would rely heavily on their starting pitcher, Simon Lundsford to keep the Bee Jays bats in check. He would pitch the complete game issuing 11 strikeouts over the nine innings, including a five of the last six outs of the contests to prevent any attempt by the Bee Jays to come back.
The Cougars would add two more runs in the fourth inning to stretch their lead to three. It was, yet again, the sixth inning that would be a turning point for the Bee Jays as they added two runs of their own to cut the deficit to one. Starting at the top of the lineup in the bottom of the sixth, leadoff hitter Matt Bernath would start the inning with a walk that was immediately followed up by a Landon Bruce hit. Two outs later and designated hitter Carson Willis drove in both Bernath and Bruce on a double for the Bee Jays’ only two runs of the contest.
Both teams would go scoreless in the final three innings, so the final score was the same as it was at the end of the sixth, 3-2. Both teams had four hits, the big difference was the three costly errors the Bee Jays committed to the lone Cougar error. Outside of the sixth inning, the Bee Jays offense was unable to get anything going. They went three up, three down in five different innings, they left six runners on base in the other four innings.
The Bee Jays move below .500 for the first time this season with an 8-9 overall record and a 7-9 clip in the Rocky Mountain League. These two teams will meet two more times over the weekend to close out the season series and the month of June. The Bee Jays will have an opportunity to get back to even on the season and get a game up on the Cougars Saturday evening at 7 PM, with the final contest between these two teams Sunday at 1:30 PM. Equity Bank is the buyout sponsor for Saturday and Dr. Dora Finney is the buyout sponsor for Sunday. You can listen on the Home of Bee Jays Baseball, KSCB 1270 AM and 92.3 FM.