Bees handle league's best team

Fans can tell a lot about their favorite team or individual player not when they are winning but more when they're backed against the ropes. It takes strong desire, dedication and character not to hang up the gloves — but rather to keep fighting back.

That's what the Salt Lake Bees did Friday night with a 5-1 win over the league-best Sacramento River Cats.

After leaving two runners stranded in the first, Salt Lake capitalized in the second with an RBI double to center field by Luis Figueroa. The River Cats countered in the top of the third with an RBI triple from former BYU standout Matt Carson.

Salt Lake eventually recaptured the lead when Matt Brown slugged one down the third-base line, bringing home another run in the fifth inning. That's when pitcher Brad Knox took over. The Salt Lake ace fanned eight batters through seven innings — earning everyone in attendance a free scone at the Sconecutter.

"(He) was huge," said Bees manager Bobby Mitchell of Knox. "(He) kept us in the game for a good six innings. He mixed his pitches well and threw strikes. He kept them off balance."

After the seventh-inning stretch, Brown came through once more. With runners on second and third and two outs, the Bees' first baseman sent one to the ice-cream stand in general admission to put the game out of reach.

"It's loose right now. We're goin' out there, playin' and havin' fun. We're doing a lot of things right, big hits by Brown — he's been hittin' well all month — so it's not surprising that he'd be the guy," said Mitchell. "The feeling in the locker room is, 'we're gonna keep battlin' to the very end. We have three games left, and we'll be out there battlin' tomorrow."

e-mail: tphibbs@desnews.com