SALT LAKE CITY — Batting ninth in the order, Bees center fielder Gary Brown likes to make the most of his opportunities at the plate.
And on Sunday, did he ever.
In his four appearances, Brown tallied three hits — two singles and a double — and one RBI to help power Salt Lake to a 9-6 win over Las Vegas.
“I definitely was just trying to go one pitch at a time. I made some adjustments here and just wanted to get a good routine going. Today we just saw the ball. Sometimes you can’t explain it — it just happens,” Brown said.
The 51s were aggressive at the plate and jumped out to a 1-0 lead after first batter Darrell Ceciliani sent a towering shot over the left-field fence.
Las Vegas owns an impressive 42-14 record when scoring the first run of the game. Fortunately for the home team, the Bees’ bats couldn’t have responded better.
After tying things up at 3-3 in the bottom of the third off Kyle Kubitza’s two-RBI single, Salt Lake shut down the 51s in the fourth and took its first lead at 5-3 behind back-to-back, two-out RBI singles from Brown and Ryan Jackson. The home team erupted for 14 hits on the night with Jackson and Brown leading the way with three hits apiece.
“We got some big two-out hits, we got some hits with men in scoring position, which is always nice to see, we got some guys on base and we just did a lot of good things offensively. It’s just a matter of getting those hits with men in scoring position. When you do that, you’re going to score some runs and win some games and we did that today,” Bees manager Dave Anderson said.
After striking out a team season-high nine batters through 4 and 2/3 innings, Salt Lake starting pitcher Nick Tropeano hit his limit and was relieved by Ryan Verdugo with the game knotted up 5-5.
Verdugo dazzled all night and gave up just one hit, zero runs and fanned three batters in 3 1/3 innings. Meanwhile, the Bees rallied for four runs off five hits in the fifth and sixth innings off RBIs from Alfredo Marte, Alex Yarbrough and Jackson to take a 9-5 edge and all the momentum.
“I thought Ryan Verdugo was outstanding for us today. He threw really well. He came in and really gave us what we need as far as length in that game. And more than anything else we battled really hard offensively,” Anderson said.
Las Vegas’ Anthony Recker went yard in the top of the ninth off reliever Mike Morin to make it a 9-6 game before Morin quickly regrouped and got the final three outs to help secure the victory.
Ryan Love is a full-time student and has been a part-time sportswriter for the Deseret News since Oct. 2012.
Follow him on Twitter @RLove7724
EMAIL: rlove@deseretnews.com