Burlington Wins Back and Forth Affair Over Illinois Valley

Burlington, IA – The Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp (6-17) clawed back into the game with a six run top of the ninth inning, but Burlington Bees (11-13) closer Jake Weissenberger (Mount Mercy)slammed the door shut to close out a 12-11 win at Community Field on June 24. Illinois Valley jumped out to a 4-0 lead off Bees starting pitcher Quinn Wilfong (Florida State College – Jacksonville) after the top of the third inning. Then, Burlington went on to score 10 unanswered runs.  PJ Hamel (McHenry County) got the scoring barrage started in the third with a solo home run to 

cut the lead to three. In the bottom of the 4th, Troy Peltz (Iowa Western) led off the frame with a home run to make it a two run game. The next batter, Tanner Reinartz (Huntington), walked before scoring on an Adam Kudronowicz (Iowa Western) double. Burlington would proceed to score five more runs in the inning on four bases loaded walks by Pistol Shrimp pitching. A Peltz sacrifice fly scored the seventh run of the inning to make the score 8-4. Those seven runs are the most the Bees have scored in an inning this season. The score remained the same until the sixth when Peltz drove in a pair of runners to bring his RBI tally on the game to four, putting the Bees up 10-4. Illinois Valley scored one run in the top of the seventh, before Burlington answered for two runs on RBIs from Jace Figuereo (South Dakota State) and Juan Fernandez (SCC) to put the Bees 

up 12-5. Dawson Szymanski of the Pistol Shrimp hit a grand slam in the ninth and two batters later, his brother Justin Szymanski hit a solo homer to make it a one run game before Weissenberger recorded a strikeout to end the game. Wilfong earned the win in his five inning start to improve his record to 2-0. Norm Cherrett (Randolph-Macon) pitched two innings out of relief, surrendering just one run. Weissenberger picked up his Prospect League leading third save of the season. Burlington improves to 2-0 against Illinois Valley on the season. The same two teams square off tomorrow night at 6:30 pm at Community Field