Colorado Springs Sky Sox Get The Best Of The Salt Lake Bees 6-3 In PCL Match-Up

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MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – A battle of Pacific Northern rivals lived up to the billing as the Colorado Springs Sky Sox defeated the Salt Lake Bees 6-3 on Wednesday evening at Security Service Field in front of 1,992 fans. The two teams came into the game in a virtual tie for first place as the team's were separated by just three percentage points. The win gives the Sky Sox sole possession of first place for the first time since April 21, 2004.

Salt Lake got on the board first in the fourth inning when they got to starter Bobby Keppel with two outs. Greg Porter and Mike Eylward knocked out back-to-back doubles as the Bees drew first blood at 1-0.

The Sky Sox would rally in the fourth to take the lead as they started to get things going against Bees starter Jonathon Rouwenhorst. Sean Barker led off the inning with a single to right and one out later moved to second on a walk to Edwin Bellorin. Seth Smith then hit a grounder to second that looked like a tailor made double play ball but the throw from the shortstop back to first was wide and Barker scored on the throwing error to make it 1-1. Joe Gaetti followed up with a double to the right field corner to plate Smith and was driven in on an Omar Quintanilla double to put the Sky Sox up 3-1.

Colorado Springs rallied for three more runs in the sixth to take a 6-1 lead. Joe Koshansky flew out to left to start the inning before Bellorin singled and Smith walked to chase Rouwenhorst in favor of reliever Alex Serrano. Serrano was greeted by Gaetti who slugged a two-run triple to right-center to give him three RBI on the night and Quintanilla drove in his second run of the evening with a sacrifice fly to left to drive in Gaetti.

The Bees would mount a late rally in the ninth as Greg Porter smacked a solo homer off reliever Ramon Ramirez to lead off the ninth . After a groundout, Ryan Budde doubled and then moved to third on a single by pinch-hitter Curtis Pride before Adam Pavkovich popped out to shortstop for the second out. Casey Smith then singled in Budde to chase Ramirez and make the score 6-3. Sox closer Ryan Speier came on and struck out Nick Gorneault to end the contest and notch his league-leading 20th save.

Sox starter Keppel (4-5) turned in his best start of the season as he went a season-high seven innings and gave up just one run on seven hits while walking none and striking out a season-high four batters. It was Keppel's third straight victory.

Click on the attached file to download/open the box score.

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