Nelson, Richardson lead Bees past Tacoma

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Chris Nelson went 3-for-3 and drove in two runs Saturday night, leading the Salt Lake Bees to a 5-0 victory of Tacoma at Spring Mobile Ballpark.

The win was Salt Lake's 14th in the last 20 games. It improved the Bees' record to 49-41 and moved them within three games of first-place Tacoma in the Pacific Northern Division of the PCL.

Following a two-hour rain delay at the start of the game, Salt Lake left-hander Dustin Richardson scattered three hits over six scoreless innings to get the win. He improved his record to 2-0.

After the Bees got the strong start Richardson, they finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth inning against Tacoma pitcher Brandon Maurer.

With two out, Kole Calhoun drew a walk. He stole second before Maurer also walked Efren Navarro and Luis Rodriguez to load the bases.

It was the first time a Bees' baserunner had reached third base and Nelson made Maurer pay for his wildness when he dropped a 2-2 pitch into a short center field. His single scored Calhoun and Navarro, giving Salt Lake a 2-0 lead.

In the seventh, the Bees broke the game open.

Trent Oeltjen opened with a walk. He stole second and scored easily on John Hester's long double to straight-away center.

Tacoma reliever Jonathan Arias replaced Maurer at that point, but Salt Lake's Matt Long greeted him with a run-scoring triple to right center.

After Tommy Field walked and Andrew Romine struck out, the Bees extended their lead to 5-0 when Long scored on a wild pitch.