Explosive 1st inning leads to Bees victory

The Salt Lake Bees battled back from a 5-run deficit in the first inning to post an 8-6 win Sunday over the Fresno Grizzlies at Franklin Covey Field. More importantly, the Bees snapped a three-game losing skid and held on to their half-game lead over Colorado Springs, which also won Sunday.

Bess starter Joe Saunders was hammered for seven hits in the first inning as Fresno batted around to jump out to its five-run lead. The Grizzlies got RBI singles by Lance Niekro, Brian Horwitz and Ivan Ochoa and a 2-run double by Tomas de la Rosa.

In the bottom of the first, Salt Lake managed to answer. With two outs, Jeff Mathis and Terry Evans hit back-to-back doubles followed by singles from Mike Eylward and Nick Gorneault. Matt Brown then doubled in Eylward and Gorneault to cut the lead to 5-4. The inning took 40 minutes to complete.

"We just kept pressing and pressing," Salt Lake manager Brian Harper said. "We got some timely hits and made the right adjustments."

From there, Saunders and Fresno starter Matt Kinney settled down, with Saunders surrendering only one more run and five hits through the next four innings. Fresno's run in the fifth came when Saunders walked Justin Leone, who stole second and was brought home on a bloop single to right by Horwitz that eluded a diving Gorneault. Leone might not have reached second if not for a close pick-off throw by Mathis, the Bees catcher, to first baseman Eylward, who applied the tag late to a leaning Leone. Leone stole second on the next pitch and was safe when the ball scooted away from Casey Smith.

Trailing 6-4 in the sixth, the Bees scored four runs off Fresno relievers Scott Munter and Dan Giese. Eylward's line-drive to right knocked Kinney out of the game. Munter came in and surrendered two walks and was replaced by Giese with a 2-0 count on the Bees' Gary Patchett and the bases loaded. Giese then hit Patchett to score Eylward. Adam Pavkovich delivered Salt Lake's fourth double of the day to score two more runs and then scored himself on Casey Smith's single.

Chris Resop relieved Saunders and pitched two 1-2-3 innings before turning over the mound to Greg Jones, who got off to a rocky start in the eighth.

Fresno loaded the bases with no outs, but Jones worked out of the inning, forcing Figero to fly out to shallow left. A passed ball followed, but Mathis corraled it just short of the on-deck circle, threw to Jones who tagged out Horwitz at the plate. When McClain grounded out to short, the Fresno threat ended. Reliever Marcus Gwynn worked the ninth for his fifth save of the year.