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during Eric's rookie season. |
| Below is a story from the Burlington, Iowa, Hawk Eye daily newspaper. |
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By Craig Sesker, The Hawk Eye
Bees right fielder hits three home runs in three at-bats in 16-8 victory. |
| Burlington Bees right fielder Eric Battersby's first 111 at-bats of the season produced four home runs. |
| He nearly doubled his home-run output in the three at-bats that followed. |
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Battersby slammed three straight home runs in three consecutive innings -- including a three-run shot, a solo blast and a grand slam -- as the Bees battered Beloit 16-8 Saturday night in Class A Midwest League baseball play. |
| Battersby's three homers and eight RBIs were just one homer and two RBIs off league records. Eight of the Bees' 13 hits went for extra bases, including four homers and three triples. |
| "It was really great to hit three straight home runs," Battersby said. "We proved we can be a good hitting team. We know we can put some runs on the board. We got shutout for something like 20 innings in a row against Kane County. This was big for us to score this many runs." |
| The Bees (15-19) scored 10 runs in the third inning and five more in the fifth to blow away the Snappers (12-23), a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate. The 16 runs were a season-best for Burlington. |
| Battersby's first long ball of the night, the three-run homer, was not even the highlight of the Bees' 10-run third. Bees shortstop Luis Suarez, who made the first out in the third, avoided making the second out of the inning when he launched a grand slam to left-center field. |
| "I have been hitting the ball hard, but right at people," Suarez said. "(Beloit reliever Roberto Miniel) threw me a 3-2 pitch down the middle. I got a good swing on it and got all of it." |
| Suarez, batting ninth in the order, had just one homer before Saturday. "To me, the grand slam by Luis was not overshadowed by what Eric did," Bees manager Nick Capra said. "That really added something else to our offense. It was good to get that kind of output from our entire lineup, one through nine." |
| Suarez was just happy to sit in the dugout for a change. Suarez, who had played in every inning of every Bees game this season, came out when Johnny Santamarina pinch-hit for him in the sixth inning. |
| Suarez gave Battersby a hard time about hitting three homers on the samenight he collected a grand slam. |
| "Battersby's done that to me before," Suarez said with a laugh. "But that's all right. He had a great night." |
| "Luis hit his grand slam after I hit my three-run," Battersby said. "After I hit my second one, he was mad at me because I hit two and he only had hit one. Then I came up and hit a grand slam and he was really mad at me. But it was all in fun." |
| Battersby's night started when he popped out to lead off the second inning. |
| His string of back-to-back-to-back jacks began an inning later when he crushed an 0-1 pitch by Beloit starter Matt Childers over the left-field fence to knock in three runs. |
| "He threw me a first-pitch fastball and I took it for a strike on the inside corner," Battersby said. "The next pitch he threw me was in the exact same spot and I was able to turn on it and hit it solid." |
| Battersby's next trip to the plate came when he smacked a solo homer to almost the identical spot in left field off Miniel in the fourth. |
| "The pitcher got behind in the count," Battersby said. "He threw me a 1-1 slider for a ball so I was kind of sitting on a fastball on the next pitch. He threw a fastball and I was able to get pretty good wood on it." |
| Battersby fell behind 0-2 in the count against Miniel in the fifth, but then completed his home-run hat trick by driving a 1-2 pitch over the left-field wall for a grand slam. |
| "I was behind 0-2 and he threw me a fastball low," Battersby said. "Then he came back with a slider and he hung it a little bit. I was out on my front foot a little bit on it, but I was still able to again get good wood on it." |
| Battersby's run at four straight homers ended in his final at-bat in the seventh. Facing reliever Scott Geitz, Battersby lined a 2-2 pitch up the middle for a single to cap a 4-for-5 night. |
| "That was the last thing on my mind right there, hitting another home run," Battersby said. "I know everybody would have liked to see it, but I was more concerned with getting a fourth hit. I had some trouble with that side-arm pitcher before. I was just concentrating on taking something up the middle. I got a couple pitches to swing at and I missed them, but I ended up poking one up the middle." |
| Battersby said he has had one other three-homer game, coming in his senior year at St. Mary's (Texas) University. Battersby said it is the first time he has ever homered in three straight at-bats. |
| "I hit three homers in college, that's the only other time," Battersby said. "A Chicago White Sox scout was at the game." |
| Battersby, from San Antonio, Texas, was a 27th-round draft pick of the White Sox in 1998. He now has seven homers and 29 RBIs and is batting .278. |
| "Eric had an outstanding night," Capra said. "I was thinking about giving him a break, but I couldn't do it because he had a chance to hit another one and he had a shot at a record. He had a great night." |
| Battersby's three consecutive homers may have been a record, but the Midwest League does not keep marks in that category. Only two other players in league history -- Clinton's Bobby Smith in 1959 and Quad City's Michael Bishop in 1978 -- have ever hit four homers in a Midwest League game. |
| Burlington's Don Denbow hit three homers in a game in 1996 when the Bees were affiliated with the San Francisco Giants. |
| It also is not known if the two grand slams by the Bees are a record by a team in one game. Wausau's James Noonan holds the record for grand slams in a game with two, set in 1978. |
| Bees starter Andrew Jacobson, making his first start of the year, benefited from the offensive support. Jacobson (1-0) allowed three runs in five innings. |
| "We are really hurting for innings right now," Capra said. "Andy did a good job. He struggled in the first couple of innings, but he found a good rhythm and settled down." |
| Burlington's Terrell Merriman tripled twice in back-to-back at-bats Saturday after not having a three-base hit in his first 55 at-bats of the year. |
| "Guys were up there and they were aggressive at the plate," Capra said. "That was a good sign." |
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This is Eric's year 2000 card, front and rear. AA Birmingham Barons |
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