Salt Lake Bees: Bees are back in the pink

Through five innings Saturday, the Salt Lake Bees weren't so pretty in pink.

On a night to honor breast cancer survivors, the Bees donned pink jerseys and let Round Rock (12-22) jump out to an 8-1 lead. Then the Bees found their groove and exploded in the late innings to rally for a 9-8 win at Franklin Covey Field.

Trailing 8-3, the Bees sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, when they scored six runs on just five hits, an error and three walks. Bobby Wilson had a two-run single as all of Salt Lake's hits were up the middle. Adam Pavkovich also had an RBI single in the inning to complete a 3-for-4 night with three RBIs.

Round Rock starter Josh Muecke had the Bees guessing, allowing just four hits in six complete innings. Had it not been for some untimely errors on the Express' part, the Bees might not have had any baserunners and certainly no runs. But when Muecke left the game, Salt Lake came alive, pounding out five hits in its final two at-bats to seal the win.

"I thought our players showed a lot of patience at the plate," Salt Lake manager Bobby Mitchell said. "We got some good at bats with runners in scoring position, and it paid off for us. What a wild night."

Pavkovich also had an explanation for the late-inning surge: "Hitting is contagious," he said. "Their starter was throwing a lot of cutters and we couldn't connect. But once he was out of the game, things just came together for us."

Added Wilson, whose two-run single made it 8-8 and later scored the winning run on Gary Patchett's sacrifice fly to right, "We battled through some adversity, and our guys really stepped up tonight."

Round Rock was comfortably ahead on a pair of RBIs by Tomas Perez in the second and a pair of singles and a pair of doubles by David Newhon and former Bee Nick Gorneault.

The Bees scored in the fifth on a double by Pavkovich, who advanced to third on a fielder's choice and was driven in by Patchett.

Bees starter Giancarlo Alvarado was replaced in the sixth by Alex Serrano, who retired the first two batters he faced, then walked Richard Paz. Newhan then homered, followed by a home run by Mark Saccomanno; JR House singled and Reggie Abercrombie drove him home with a double to the left-field corner to extend the lead to 8-1. The Bees added two runs in the bottom of the sixth on Pavkovich's two-run double to cut the lead to 8-3. Then came the seventh that put the Bees ahead for good, and closer Jose Arrendondo worked the ninth for his 10th save of the year.

BEES NOTES: Round Rock stranded runners in every inning — 13 total for the game. ... Attendance Saturday was 7,198. ... The game lasted more than three hours. ... Gorneault, who started in left for the Express, still holds several Salt Lake batting records. ... Today's game was moved to 6:30 p.m. because of the afternoon start of Game 4 between the Jazz and the Lakers.

Beelines

• Top performance: Adam Pavkovich went 3-for-4 with two doubles

• Record: 28-7

• Up next: today vs. Round Rock, 6:30 p.m.

• Current series: Bees lead 1-0

• Next homestand: May 23-26 vs. Portland

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E-mail: jringwood@desnews.com