Hot Rods Victorious in Home Opener
FINAL: Bowling Green 4, Lake County 3
The Bowling Green Hot Rods played their seventh home opening game tonight. 7,100 fans showed up to take in the action at Bowling Green Ballpark and start the baseball season. Bowling Green was coming off of a comeback win over the Dayton Dragons, and they wanted to keep their win streak going in the series opener against the Lake County Captains.
The Hot Rods and Captains got things going at 6:05 p.m. CDT in downtown Bowling Green. Fans were already lined up outside the gates two hours prior to first pitch, as they were ready for a good baseball game – that was what tonight was.
Bowling Green pitcher Henry Centeno started the game off by throwing a fastball straight down the middle to Lake County’s right fielder Greg Allen – goodbye homerun. Allen got every bit of the ball he could and sent the ball over the Hot Rods bullpen. That gave the Captains a 1-0 lead over BG to open the home opener. Centeno then recovered for a moment from the early homer and went on to strikeout Claudio Bautista and throw out Yu-Cheng Chang at first base. Henry then went on to walk Lake County’s Bobby Bradley and allow Dorssys Paulino a single. The Captains Bobby Ison then hit a blopper to center field, which sent Bradley home to score and make the game 2-0 in LC’s favor. Francisco Mejia then grounded out to first and that concluded the top half of the first inning. The score stayed 2-0 all the way up until the top of the sixth inning – that was when Hot Rods first basemen Casey Gillaspie made contact and had a nice hit to right field and sent both runners on base home to score and tie the game at two a piece. The bottom of the sixth approaches, and the Hot Rods bring in pitcher Edwin Fierro to replace Henry Centeno. Centeno pitched 5 innings, allowed 4 hits, two runs, one homerun, one error, 2 walks, and four strikeouts. Fierro started his movement by striking out Paulino. Bobby Ison then flew out to center field, then two plays later Sicnarf Loopstok is thrown out at first base, sending the game to the bottom of the sixth inning tied at 2. Hot Rods left fielder Bralin Jackson started the bottom half of the sixth with a huge RBI double, which gave the Hot Rods a 3-2 lead. Center fielder Thomas Milone then came up, had a big hit, and sent another Hot Rod player home to make it 4-2 in BG’s favor. To start off the seventh for Lake County, Greg Allen had a RBI double and that made the score 4-3. The score would remain the same the remainder of the game as Hot Rods relief pitcher Kyle Bird strukout eight batters total to make Bowling Green victorious over the Captains in their home opener at BG Ballpark.
With the win tonight, the Hot Rods are now 5-2 in home openers at Bowling Green Ballpark. Both teams play game two of the series tomorrow afternoon at 2:05 p.m. CDT. if rain permits.
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