EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Back-to-back losses are rare in the historic legacy of the Liberal Bee Jays, and three in a row are even harder to recall.
But the Bee Jays dropped three straight over the weekend to the Colorado Roughriders and salvaged the final game of the series against position players taking the mound for the Roughriders.
Liberal’s struggles began Thursday in a 10-5 loss.
The Bee Jay bats fell silent for six innings, and the Rougriders broke a 1-1 tie wide open with five runs in the sixth to take a 6-1 lead.
Liberal cut the lead to 6-2 in the seventh. But the bullpen continued to falter and gave up four more runs in the top of the ninth.
The Bee Jays scored three in the ninth in the 10-5 loss.
The Bee Jays suffered a run rule loss Friday, 13-2.
Liberal was outhit 14-2, and all four Bee Jay pitchers allowed at least two runs.
In Game 3, the Bee Jays outhit the Roughriders 17-7 but lost 15-14.
Liberal scored two runs in the first inning, but the Roughriders answered with three in the second.
Colorado extended the lead to 6-2 in the top of the third, but the Bee Jays responded with five runs to take a 7-6 lead.
Liberal pushed to a 10-6 lead after scoring three runs in the sixth, but the Bee Jays struggled in the seventh and allowed five runs, and the Roughriders had an 11-10 lead
Braden Whipple struggled early and allowed six runs on two hits and six walks.
Liberal gave up for more runs in the top of the eight and trailed 15-10.
The Bee Jays added two runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth to cut the lead to 15-14,
Liberal had runners on second and third but stranded the tying and winning runs when Jacob Ortega grounded to, and the Bee Jays fell 15-14.
Liberal pitchers combined to walk 17 Roughriders in the loss.
With the Roughrider pitching staff depleted for the final game of the series Sunday afternoon, the Bee Jays were able to take advantage against position players on the mound to earn a 22-12 run rule win to end the losing streak at three.
The Bee Jays scored in all six innings they batted including two in the first, eight in the second, two in the fifth, five in the fourth, three in the fifth and two in the sixth.
Drew Grego, Kyle Sandner, Landon Bruce, Matt Bernath and Todd Baffa each had a home run in the win.
Thomas Wrehe pitched two-and-a-third innings and allowed eight runs on nine hits, and Leandro Tamaki gave up four runs on seven hits.
Liberal hosts Hays tonight.
