The bounce-back Bees did exactly that Sunday afternoon at Franklin Covey Field, with a 7-3 victory over the Portland Beavers. After a blowout defeat Saturday, Salt Lake rebounded to take three of the four games in the series.

"They stay loose," said Bees manager Brian Harper, referring to his players' clubhouse demeanor. "If you have a tight clubhouse, it tends to make it harder (to bounce back) when you lose."

Now the Bees will prepare for their first showdown with second-place Colorado Springs, which comes to town 2 1/2 games back, for a three-game set.

"They've been swinging the bats really well," said Harper. "Every time I look at their scores, it seems like they're scoring eight, 10 runs."

Well then it's a good thing that Salt Lake's bullpen is pitching lights-out. The Bees have not lost a game in which they've led after the seventh inning. They're 26-0.

"We take pride in going out there and doing our job," said pitcher Marcus Gwyn, who lowered his ERA to 1.45 with two scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth.

How have Gwyn and the rest of the bullpen been able to be so effective?

"Throwing strikes," said Gwyn.

The Bees unleashed a barrage of singles in the bottom of the third, scoring three runs on five singles. Terry Evans, Brandon Wood, and Kendry Morales all had RBI singles for Salt Lake in the inning.

The Beavers rallied, however, with some singles of their own in the fifth. Mike Sansoe blooped an RBI single on a fly ball to center; then Bees pitcher Pedro Liriano hurt his own cause with a wild pitch that scored Josh Howard from third. Vince Sinisi notched the score at 3-3 with a RBI single of his own.

The singles spree ended in the seventh when Terry Evans went yard with a three-run dinger to left to give the Bees a 6-3 advantage. Brandon Wood added another run on a throwing error by Beavers shortstop Oscar Robles with two out.

It was somewhat of a rare home run for the Bees, who rank second to last in the league with 40 homers.

"As a whole we feel like we could be hitting a lot better," said Evans, who remains optimistic that the bats could heat up at any moment. "That power surge could come at any time," he warned.

That surge would be better to come sooner than later with the Sky Sox coming to town. The Sox rang up 51 runs in the series it just finished with Tacoma.

NOTES: The Bees improved to 2-0 when the game is televised. The Bees had 10 hits, nine of them singles ... The only extra-base hit was Evans' three-run homer.

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E-mail: nstorey@desnews.com