By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
It was a night for the Burlington Bees when even the mini-comeback in the late innings lacked noise.
The Bees had just three hits in an 8-5 loss to the O’Fallon Hoots in Friday’s Prospect League at Community Field. The lack of offense, combined with pitching struggles, was enough to aggravate manager Owen Oreskovich.
“We’ve just got to be better, plain and simple,” Oreskovich said. “Especially early in the game. That, if I’m being honest, was the most unenjoyable thing to watch.”
The Bees (4-6) were down 4-0 after the first two innings, and 7-0 after five.
“We’ve got to learn how to get zeros in the first inning,” Oreskovich said. “We haven’t been able to do that in probably every game we’ve lost. And that gets you off on the wrong foot.”
The Bees have given up first-inning runs in five of their six losses, and gave up two runs in the first inning of this one. When O’Fallon (4-6) added two more runs in the second inning, the hole had gotten deeper.”
“You’re down four after two innings, and it’s hard to get anything going,” Oreskovich said. “Plain and simple, we’ve got to be competitive.”
O’Fallon starter Drew Politte (1-0) threw six shutout innings. The Bees’ first nine outs came on grounders, and they had only one runner reach third base in those six innings.
“He threw the ball over the plate, and we just hit it,” Oreskovich said. “And we didn’t hit it very well. A couple of guys did, but their middle infield made a couple of plays, and we didn’t get anything clicking or going.”
The Bees then got into O’Fallon’s bullpen and started scoring, but still couldn’t hit. They scored four runs in the seventh inning of five walks and two hit batters. The lone run in the eighth inning came on a walk and two errors.
T.J. Hauser (0-2) was the losing pitcher.
The two teams play a 6:30 p.m. game Saturday.
Photo: Bees shortstop Juan Fernandez flips the ball to second baseman Tate Slagle for a force out to end the third inning. (Photo by Steve Cirinna)
Published
June 6, 2026
