Rays’ Single-A Hot Rods defeat Fort Wayne
FINAL: Bowling Green Hot Rods 3, Fort Wayne Tin Caps 2
The Bowling Green Hot Rods returned home tonight following a four-game road trip to start up a six-game homestand. The team welcomed Fort Wayne into Bowling Green Ballpark this evening for their first matchup of the season with the Tin Caps.
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Bowling Green entered tonight’s contest with a 20-14 overall record and sat in first place in the Class A Midwest League. The Hot Rods were also trying to fight back following a series, and 11-0 loss at West Michigan yesterday. Fort Wayne ventured into Downtown Bowling Green with a shabby 10-21 record on the stat sheet. The Tin Caps were also trying to bounce back after being swept by the Lake County Captains.
Chris Pike was selected to get the start on the mound for the Hot Rods, and Edwin Moreno was due up to be the lead-off man for Fort Wayne, as both teams opened the game at 7:05 p.m.
Chris Pike had a 4-1 record before pitching in tonight’s game, and he looked to keep up the good work. Pike started the contest off this evening with a 1-2-3 inning. He made Moreno strike out swinging, Michael Gettys pop out to the first base foul line, and Franchy Cordero ground out to Hot Rods’ first baseman Casey Gillaspie as well. Thomas Milone was set to lead off for Bowling Green after a good defensive half-inning. Milone flew out to left field, but Riley Unroe singled on a line drive to right field to give the Hot Rods a hit. Unroe stole second, but Jace Conrad flew out and Gillaspie struke-out so Unroe was never able to score. We had no score after a full inning of baseball.
Trae Santos apparently didn’t like a no score game, so he crushed a ball over the right field wall giving himself a solo-homerun and Fort Wayne a 1-0 lead. The score remained that up until the bottom of the fifth inning – that was when the Hot Rod bats got it going. Thomas Milone doubled on a line drive to center field and Bralin Jackson ran home to score. Then Jace Conrad singled on a ground ball to the pitcher, who made an error. Conrad’s hit sent Thomas Milone home to score and give Bowling Green a 2-1 lead and five full innings.
Then Bowling Green Ballpark fount out that Tin Cap Duanel Jones didn’t like to face deficits, as he homered on a fly ball over the left field wall. That made the scoreboard 2-2. The Hot Rods looked to rally back in the bottom half of the inning, and they did just that. Thomas Milone reached base on a throwing error by Tin Cap pitcher Jimmy Brasoban and Cristian Toribio scored. That gave BG a 3-2 lead, and that is what the final score would play out to be as the Hot Rods escaped with a win in the first game of the series on Fireworks Friday night at Bowling Green Ballpark.
Bowling Green (21-14) and Fort Wayne (10-22) go at it again tomorrow in Game 2 of the series at 7:05 p.m. CDT at Bowling Green Ballpark. You can listen to the game on 1340wbgn.com or watch the game at MiLB.TV.
-You can stay up to date with Bowling Green Hot Rods baseball by following @HotRodsNation on Twitter at twitter.com/HotRodsNation.-
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