Bullpen Shuts Down Wellington for Fifth Straight Win

Liberal leaned on their bullpen again and it didn’t disappoint.  On a night when the Bee Jays didn’t supply much offense and when the defense committed three errors, the bullpen stood tall.  The Bee Jays beat the Wellington Heat 6-4 Saturday night at Brent Gould Field.  Liberal had only three hits but Wellington had four errors and walked eight.

The Heat starter struggled with his control on a night when the strike zone was minimal.  The Heat walked two in the first and walked the bases loaded in the second before RJ Williams was hit by a pitch with the bases juiced to force home a run.  Kyle Knauth’s infield single scored another run.  The Heat tied it in the fourht when Matt Heck homered to lead off the inning.  A double and a single scored the second run.  The Heat took a 4-2 lead when the BJ’s had two errors in the fifth.  Liberal responded with three in the fifth as a Heat error on a force play attempt at second allowed two BJ’s to score to tie the game.  Cole Habig’s sac fly to right gave Liberal a 5-4 lead.  The Heat walked the first two men seventh to set up Brandon Urquizo’s RBI single to left to give Liberal a 6-4 lead.

Brent Bezio gave the BJ’s a solid start with 4 and 2/3 allowing two earned runs.  The Bullpen slammed the door from the middle innings to the late innings.  Zach Hansen went 1 and 1/3 scoreless innings before Jakob Hernandez was perfect through two striking out four and JB Olson worked the ninth for his seventh save.

Liberal has won five straight and is 4-1 against Wellington.  The Bee Jays are 5-0 in the second half standings and Wellington is 3-2.  Liberal is 13-13 overall in the Jayhawk which could matter if tie breakers come into play.  Wellington is 11-14 overall in league.

The same two teams play Sunday night at 7 at Brent Gould Field with the Dugout Show at 6:45 on 1270 and kscbnews.net.  The Leader and Times is the buyout sponsor.