Shaky defense early put Burlington in a hole they could not climb out of, as the Bees fell to O’Fallon 11-7.  Luke Vinson led off the game with a ground ball to short. Ben Nippolt mishandled the ball, which also got by second baseman Mason Land, and when no one covered second Vinson wound up with what would be scored as a double.  Vinson then stole third.  Bees’ catcher Chase Honeycutt’s throw went into left field and the Hoots had their first run.

A 2-out E4 in the top of the third continued the inning. Once again O’Fallon would post a run that was not earned.

In the visitor’s fifth Vinson was again the beneficiary of a Burlington error as left fielder Reid Halfacre misplayed his fly ball.  Vinson ended up on third.  He scored on a 2-0ut error by Zane Zielinski.  That batter would eventually score on a wild pitch and a passed ball.  Bees down 4-2.

They would eventually fall behind 10-2 entering the eighth.  But, no lead is ever safe against Burlington.  Jackson Jones slugged his 11th home run of the year in the bottom half to begin a home comeback.

After O’Fallon scored in the top of the ninth, the Burlington made one final charge.  Rome Wallace drew a one out walk. He went to second on a passed ball, before Nippolt walked to make it first and second.  Lincoln Riley powered a double to center, scoring Wallace.  Nate Ebersole singled in two more runs, but it was too little too late as Jones flew out to left and Austin Simpson grounded out to first.

Buried in the chaos was another solid outing by McLain Harris.  He went five and a third, gave up 6 runs on 6 hits. Just 2 runs were earned.  The righty walked none and struck out 7 of the 25 batters he faced.  The hard luck loss dropped his record to 3-2.

Burlington is off on Monday, before hosting Clinton for the final time this year.  Game time is 6:30 Tuesday.