For the first four innings in their 6-4 loss to Las Vegas Friday night, the Salt Lake Bees' offense was nowhere to be found.

Las Vegas starter Jon Meloan, who began his career in Ogden, held the Bees scoreless on just two hits in the first four frames.

The Bees had runners on base in each of the first four innings. In the third and fourth innings, they had two runners on and they had a runner caught stealing and one picked off first.

By the time the Bees awoke in the fifth, they were trailing 4-0.

Adam Pavkovich homered to start the fifth,while three others reached base and the lead was down to one run on Sandoval's hit.

Brandon Wood had two hits in the game, one of them a single to tie the game at 4-4.

But after that outburst, the Bees fell back into their old ways.

"I thought we came out a little flat for some reason," Salt Lake manager Bobby Mitchell said. "(Meloan) pitched decent at the beginning. I thought we got him off the hook a couple of times swinging at bad pitches that were up in the zone."

In the final four innings, Ramon Troncoso, Tanyon Sturtze and Brian Falkenborg held the Bees in check in posting the two-run victory.

Falkenborg walked a runner to start the ninth but then he got the next three hitters to fly out to left-field to earn his 11th save of the year.

"I thought we had better at-bats later in the game and had a couple of opportunities but couldn't come up with the big hit to score."

The trio held the Bees to just one hit, while three others reached on bases on balls.

The 51s (37-31) had three consecutive two-out hits and scored what proved to be the winning runs in the seventh.

Salt Lake starter Dustin Moseley suffered the loss, while Troncoso earned the win.

Salt Lake's best scoring opportunity — other than the fifth — came in the eighth when the Bees had runners on first and second with one out, but they were unable to push across a run as Pavkovich and Duff flew out to end the threat.

The two teams will play a doubleheader today beginning at 5 p.m. Fireworks will follow the 7 p.m. contest.

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E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com