Bees Grind Out Mill Rats to Set Longest Win Streak in Prospect League Era

Burlington, IA - The Burlington Bees (32-21, 20-7) trailed 5-2 going into the bottom of the third. The team scored 7 unanswered to defeat the Johnstown Mill Rats (26-26, 9-17) 9-6. 

The Mill Rats had the bases loaded with nobody out in the ninth. Morgan Jennings (Hawaii-Pacific) got three straight outs to record his first save of the season.

Burlington remained half a game ahead of the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp (31-22, 20-8) for the top-spot in the Northwest Division in the second half. The two play a twin-bill tomorrow, beginning at 5:00 p.m. at Community Field. The Bees will be the away team for game one.

Johnstown scored the first two runs in the game in the first. They left the bases loaded. 

Burlington scored two in the bottom of the first. After a Corey Boyette (Lipscomb) singled, Keanu Spencer (Hawaii-Pacific) homered to tie the game. It was his seventh homerun of the season.

Johnstown scored twice in the second and once in the third. 

Jake Miller (SCC) walked in the bottom of the third. Marcus Beatty (SCC) followed with a double and Boyette singled to plate another. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Lincoln Cardwell (Parkland) hit his first homer of the season to pull the team within one. It was his first long bomb of the day. 

In the fifth, the team scored twice. Spenser walked, Schulte singled, and Owen Nowak (McHenry) walked to load the bases. 

Caleb Seibers (Olney Central) came up and singled to tie the game. It was his 48th RBI of the year to match the lead league.

Cardwell worked as a walk to give the team the lead. 

The team tallied two more in the sixth. Beatty began the inning on a walk and went to second on  wild pitch. 

Boyette followed up with a RBI double. It brought his RBI total to 36 on the season.

After a Spenser walk and pitching change, Schulte reached on a fielder's choice to score another.

In the eighth, Schulte hit a sacrifice fly to score the team's ninth run.

Burlington went to the bullpen in the second inning. 

Jack Duncan (Western Illinois) tossed four innings starting in the second. He struck out one and let up two earned runs.

With two on in the sixth, Marshall Robinson (Faulkner University) took over and got three big outs. His final line was two innings with a hit and no runs allowed.

Sean O'Dowd (St Charles CC) tossed a shutout eighth, but allowed a run in the ninth.

Jennings got the save.

Johnstown travels to the Lafayette Aviators (33-20, 18-10) July 30