Salt Lake Bees: Beavers spoil Bees' home opener
Salt Lake never quits but loses a classic slugfest
After opening the year with eight straight victories on the road, the Bees dropped an 11-9 slugfest to the Portland Beavers. The second-largest opening crowd in franchise history (11,499) watched the teams combine for 31 hits.
"It was like two heavyweights going at it," said Salt Lake manager Bobby Mitchell. "It was a battle, battle, battle."
The Bees, however, could never overcome an early 4-0 deficit.
Though pleased with how his team fought back, Mitchell acknowledged it was disappointing to lose the first game at home.
"You know we're not going to go forever without losing ... (But) I didn't want to lose the first game at home. Especially with the big crowd in front of the fans," said Mitchell. " So it's disappointing in that fact. We'll just try to get another one going tomorrow. We'll see what happens, that's the way we look at it."
Mitchell noted that the Bees may have been "too pumped up" early on and may have been too aggressive at the plate.
Second baseman Gary Patchett, who drove in a team-high three runs for the Bees, said the streak was also a factor. Portland, he explained, was well aware of Salt Lake's season-opening run of success.
Things started well for the Bees. Salt Lake starter Kasey Olenberger's first pitch was a strike and the first inning went 1-2-3.
The Bees weren't as fortunate in the second, however. Portland's Brian Myrow led off with a double and later scored on a broken bat single by Will Venable. The Beavers added two more runs later in the inning on a two-out homer by Luke Carlin and made it 4-0 in the fourth when Craig Stansberry contributed a solo shot off of Olenberger, who took the loss after scattering eight hits in six complete innings.
Salt Lake closed the gap to 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth. After Freddy Sandoval led off with a single, Gary Patchett opened the outburst with a two-run homer. Back-to-back doubles by Terry Evans and Kendry Morales produced the other score.
The momentum shift proved to be short-lived, though, as Portland quickly regained its comfort margin. A three-run double by Venable with two outs in the seventh sealed the deal. Leading 7-3, the Beavers added another run on a single by Stansberry after the Bees replaced reliever Jeff Kennard with Matt Wilhite.
Salt Lake responded with a lead-off homer by Brandon Wood and an RBI single from Bobby Wilson in the bottom of the inning to make it 8-5.
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