M&M Boys Lead Bees to Win

Print

M&M Boys Lead Bees to Win
07/25/2007 12:13 AM ET
By Randy Wehofer / Burlington Bees

Burlington, IA (July 24, 2007) - Matt Morizio hit a home run and drove in two and Mario Santiago pitched five strong innings as the Burlington Bees (17-14, 47-53) beat the West Michigan Whitecaps (20-11, 58-43) 5-2 at Community Field tonight. The Bees won the final two games of this series to get a split of this set, but the Whitecaps won the season series 6-2.
Santiago (2-7) had lost his last six decisions going back to his last win on April 26th. The first loss of this streak actually came at West Michigan on May 6th. The Whitecaps got the first run against him with a two-out rally in the top of the third. Scott Sizemore doubled, James Skelton walked, and Brennan Boesch singled to drive in the run. The Bees came right back to tie the game when Morizio led off the bottom of the third inning with a solo home run to right off of Whitecaps' starter Lauren Gagnier. Jesus Soto followed it up with a single and moved to third on a double by Derrick Robinson. Jeff Bianchi drove in Soto with a groundout to second and the Bees led 2-1.
The Whitecaps came back with a run in the top of the fourth to tie the game. Jeramy Laster doubled and scored on a two-out single by Joe Tucker. The Bees responded again in the bottom of the fourth. Jamar Walton led off with a single and moved to third when Michael Thompson hit a double off of the third base bag. Luis Castillo singled up the middle to drive in Walton to put the Bees back on top 3-2 and then Morizio singled for his second RBI as Thompson scored. After a sacrifice bunt and a walk to load the bases, Bianchi drove in the final run with a sacrifice fly to left. Gagnier (4-10) then walked Joe Dickerson and was taken out of the game. Luis Marte got out of the jam and worked through 3.1 scoreless innings in relief. Dan Fyvie finished on the mound for the Whitecaps with a scoreless eighth. Gagnier is now tied with Aaron Breit of Ft. Wayne for the most losses in the Midwest League this season.
Santiago came back out and set the Whitecaps down in order in the top of the fifth to qualify for the win and the bullpen did the rest. Josh Cribb walked one in a scoreless inning. Henry Barrera allowed a hit and a walk and struck out one in two scoreless innings. Chris Hayes finished the inning for his team-leading ninth save. With one out, Jordan Newton hit a slicing line drive to right that Walton misread and then fell down trying to correct his route. He stayed down on the ground for several minutes as Newton raced for a triple. Walton came out of the game with a twisted ankle, but isn't expected to miss extended time. Hayes stranded Newton with a bounce out to third and a bounce out to first to end the game. He is now tied for fifth on the Bees' career saves list with 16 over the last two seasons. Jesse Vasquez collected 16 from 1980-81.
Dickerson doubled in his first at-bat to extend his hitting streak to 17 games. He has the longest active streak in the Midwest League and with a hit in his next game would tie Gerardo Parra of South Bend for the longest streak in the MWL this season. He has also reached base safely in 28 consecutive games while hitting in 36 of his last 38. Walton's single in the fourth extended his hitting streak to 14 games, currently the third-longest streak in the league.
The Bees are off tomorrow and back in action on Thursday night at John O'Donnell Stadium in Davenport, Iowa to start a four-game series against the Swing of the Quad Cities. LH Ryan DiPietro (5-6, 4.52) will be on the mound for the Bees against RH Shaun Garceau (6-7, 3.94) of the Swing. Game time is 7:00 and the game will be broadcast live on KBUR AM 1490 and KBKB AM 1360 with the pre-game show starting at 6:40.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.