Bees Drop Hoots in Seven, 15-5

(WW II Vet Vern Dorothy throws out the first pitch on Friday.  Intern Mackenzy Vancil looks on)

The Bees and Hoots had the honor of watching 96 year old, World-War II veteran Vern Dorothy throw out the first pitch at Burlington Friday night.  After the pitch and national anthem, the Bees bats tuned up O'Fallon starter Matt James (0-2) on theway to a mercy rule win.

Burlington scored a run in the first and one in the second, then exploded for seven in the third.  Up 2-1, outfielder Spencer Nivens walked.  Third baseman Oscar Ponce walked.  Nivens stole third.  Marcos Sanchez walked to load the bases.  After a strikeout, first baseman Ryan Grace, who went 4-5 with two runs scored and an RBI on the night, drove a single to right scoring Nivens.  A wild pitch scored Ponce and moved the runners to second and third.  Another strikeout followed.  Second baseman Dawson Estep collected an RBI with a double to left.  Shortstop Tucker Cole walked.  Right fielder Sam Monroe walked to reload the bases.

The score was 6-1 at that point.  Hoots' manager Jonathan Mills may have read the writing on the wall and went to first baseman Cole Robinson to replace James.  He was met by Nivens, who doubled to right clearing the bases.  After a line out to third, the Bees were up 9-1.

The teams exchanged runs over the next three innings. O'Fallon tallied three scores in the top of the seventh to draw within five. 

Robinson, who showed a wide variety of interesting arm angle, speeds and windups had kept Burlington off balance until the bottom of the inning, when the Bees finally figured him out.

Estep rolled an infield single to first.  After a strikeout, Estep advanced to second on a wild pitch.  Brandon Bickford moved him to third with a single to right.  Ponce doubled to left scoring Nivens.  Nivens wound up 2-3 for the game, with two runs scored, two walks and 4 RBI.  A pop up made the second out.  Nick Tampa drove in Ponce, singling to left.  A Grace single sent Tampa to third.  Catcher Ben Tallman collected his first two hits of the season.  His second drove in the winning run on a single to left.  That made the final score 15-5 triggering the mercy rule and ending the contest.

Ian Landreneau got the win, going 4.2 innings.  He gave up three hits, 2 runs, 3 walks, while striking out four.  Devin Holmes tossed 1.1 in relief.  His line was no runs, one hit, one walk and two strikeouts.  Jaxon Ingram closed out the Hoots, although he gave up 3 runs on 2 hits.  James took the loss and went to 0-2.