Bees win homestand finale

So far, so good for the Salt Lake Bees.

They completed a successful season-opening homestand with an 8-5 victory over the Tucson Sidewinders on a chilly Thursday night at Franklin Covey Field.

The victory gave the Bees (6-2) their second consecutive series win.

"I'm pleased. It seems like we've won different pretty much every day," said Salt Lake manager Brian Harper. "Just different ways, a couple of times with good starting pitching and a lot of times with the bullpen. (Now) we're starting to swing the bats a lot better. Our big guys are starting to swing the bats a lot better."

The series finale, featuring 11 hits by the Bees, was a seesaw affair early on.

Salt Lake took a 1-0 lead in the first on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Wood. He scored Nathan Haynes, who led off with a single.

Tucson countered an inning later when Mark Johnson evened things up with a two-out RBI double.

Several other scoring exchanges followed.

The Bees regained the lead in the third when Jeff Mathis contributed a run-scoring single with two outs.

The 2-1 advantage didn't hold up for long, though. The Sidewinders erased the deficit and took their first advantage in the fourth when Jamie D'Antona homered and Johnson added a two-out RBI single.

Salt Lake regained a tie in the bottom off the inning on a sacrifice fly by Mike Eylward.

In the fifth, single runs were swapped. Tucson scored on a single by Chris Carter and the Bees on a groundout by Kendry Morales.

Tied at 5-5, the teams separated in the sixth—but not without a couple of lead changes.

The Sidewinders pulled ahead for the final time when Augie Ojeda drove in a run. The Bees, however, fired back with an RBI double by Haynes before taking the lead for good on a fielding error by Tucson.

Salt Lake nailed down the victory in the seventh on run-scoring hits by Nick Gorneault, who doubled, and Elyward, to extend the lead to three.

And it stayed that way.

"It was kind of a long game," said Harper. "But we did what we had to do to win."

Bees starter Matt Hensley had four strikeouts before leaving the game after 2 2/3 innings with elbow stiffness. Chris Resop, Jason Bulger, Jonathon Rouwenhorst and Marcus Gwyn were used in relief. Bulger (1-0) picked up the win and Gwyn earned the save.

Salt Lake begins its first road trip of the season tonight at Las Vegas. Bees RHP Pedro Liriano (0-1, 4.50 ERA) and 51s LHP Greg Miller (0-0, 3.00 ERA) are the scheduled starters.

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E-mail: dirk@desnews.com