Hot Rods Win Series vs Lake County
After winning their home opener against Lake County back on Saturday night, and improving to 5-2 in opening night games at Bowling Green Ballpark, the Bowling Green Hot Rods looked to win the series against the Captains today in a 12 ½ inning showdown starting at 11:00 a.m. in downtown BG.
You’re probably wondering why the Hot Rods and Captains played 12 ½ total innings total. Well, in yesterday’s Game 2 matchup, mother nature decided to get ugly and pour down rain, causing the game to be suspended in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Hot Rods were down 4-0 at that point of the ball game, so it was kind of a good thing. So today, both teams participated by finishing the remainder of Sunday’s game followed by a seven-inning game.
Bowling Green entered today’s finisher game with a lot of momentum, it seemed like. The Hot Rods were trailing 4-0 to the Captains when the game was suspended Sunday, and today the guys did everything they could to try and come back in the contest. The game continued with the Hot Rods batting – all three hitters strukout and it was a non-scoring day up until the bottom of the fifth inning – that was when Cristian Toribio hit an RBI single sending a Hot Rod player home to score and make the contest 4-1. BG pitcher Hunter Wood then went on to strikeout all three Lake County batters and bring the Hot Rods make to home plate to take a swing. Bowling Green catcher Nick Ciuffo dropped an RBI single to start the bottom half of the sixth inning sending a runner home to make it 4-2. The Captains then switched pitchers – bringing in right-hander Cameron Hill. Things continued to happen and the Hot Rods got a single in the 9th, but fell short to the Captains in the remainder of Game 2 of the series, losing 4-3. That made BG 4-7 overall on the season and tied the series at 1-1.
The field was tarped for a little while before the start of the final game of the series, but the Hot Rods and Captains started Game 3 around 2:30 p.m with BG pitcher Enderson Franco on the mound. He worked around a one-out single, getting the team three outs and sending the Hot Rods to bat with centerfielder Thomas Milone to lead off. All three batters flew or grounded out and that sent the game to the second inning. Franco completed a 1-2-3 inning to start the second and that sent BG back to bat with Taylor Hawkins up – he contributed his first Midwest League RBI on a sac fly, giving the Hot Rods a 1-0 lead. That’s all the team would get in that half-inning. Franco then sent three more Captain batters out bringing the Hot Rods to hit again. Grant Kay hit a two-run double, then Coty Blanchard hit an RBI single – that put Bowling Green ahead 4-0 over Lake County. The Captains scored one run in the top of the fourth inning, but that is all, as the Bowling Green Hot Rods win the seven-inning contest and the series against LC, 4-1.
Bowling Green improved to 5-7 overall with the win. The team starts their series with Dayton tomorrow night with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. CDT down at Bowling Green Ballpark. You can stay up to date with the game by following @HotRodsNation on Twitter. Check back here at Bluegrass Dominion on Thursday for your series recap.