2023 50+ Division

Salt Lake Bees 14, Sacramento Capitals 9

Submitted by Randy Miles, Bees’ manager

The Salt Lake Bees (Formerly known as the Utah Pirates) beat the Sacramento Capitals 14-9 to win the 50+ division of the MSBL Las Vegas Kickoff Classic.

Salt Lake jumped to a 4-0 lead after three innings, but Sacramento chipped away and took a 7-4 lead heading into the eighth inning.  With two outs in the eighth, Dave Carter drew a full-count walk, followed by a Sacramento error, a hit, and then Calvin Thomas hit a bases-clearing double to tie up the game.  Then we strung together a few more hits to take a 10-7 lead.

Salt Lake added four more in the ninth and held off Sacramento for the win.  Calvin Thomas pitched the final three innings for the win.  It was a great comeback win against a really good pitcher (Scott Corliss) who was dominant but we wore him down in the end. 

Aaron Tolleson pitched the semi-final in the win against the LV Warriors (who beat us by 11 in pool play) and pitched 6 1/3 innings in the championship.  He threw 18 innings in total for us and was simply amazing, pitching and batting (13-22 with 12 RBIs).

We had some great hitting throughout the tourney but no one was better than Troy Mcnaughton.   He was 16-21 with five doubles, four triples, two home runs, and 20 RBIs in only six games.  Other notable performances were Jared Bills (11-22, 2 home runs) and Calvin Thomas, 12-19 with five RBIs in the championship game.