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Bowling Green Hot Rods

Hot Rods Salvage Series-Split in 12-8 Shootout over South Bend

May 25, 2015 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Bowling Green Hot Rods News Release


Bowling Green, Ky. - Bowling Green posted crooked numbers in four innings and scored in five overall to register a season-high in runs scored in a 12-8 victory over the South Bend Cubs to clinch a four-game series-split in front of 3,748 fans at Four Winds Field on Monday afternoon.

Bowling Green (26-19) and South Bend (20-25) combined for 10 runs over the first three innings, with Coty Blanchard going yard for the first time this season in the first inning off Cubs starter Erick Leal, plating Riley Unroe in the process, to give the Hot Rods a 2-0 lead after three outs.

After getting a run back in the bottom of the first inning on a Yasiel Balaguert sacrifice fly, the Cubs posted three runs in the bottom of the second inning, one on a solo home run from Jesse Hodges and two on an RBI single by Gleyber Torres, giving South Bend a 4-2 lead.

Hot Rods starter Hyrum Formo saw his day end after that three-run frame, tossing just 2.0 innings and allowing seven hits and four runs, while striking out one and walking none.

Not to be outdone, the Hot Rods exploded for four runs in the top of the third, all coming with two outs. After a Mac James hit-by-pitch loaded the bags, Hunter Lockwood popped up the first pitch barely behind first, but Balaguert lost track of the balk and then kicked the ball deeper into right field dropping for a two-RBI single and scoring the final run on the first of three South Bend errors for a 5-4 cushion. Lockwood himself came home on a Bralin Jackson RBI double, giving Bowling Green the 6-4 edge.

Blanchard, Justin Williams and James all contributed RBI in a three-run fourth, a two-out error in the sixth resulted in Blanchard plating an unearned run, while two more runs came plateward in the seventh on Thomas Milone's RBI double and Unroe's RBI single all contributing to a 12-4 lead.

The Hot Rods bullpen, held the Cubs at bay for the final 7.0 innings. Edgar Gomez (3-2) tossed 4.0 outstanding shutout innings, striking out three, while Mike Franco sealed the deal, tossing the final 2.0 innings and allowed just one runner to reach on a base hit, while also striking out three.

Leal (3-3) logged the loss of after just 4.0 innings of work, allowing nine hits and a career-high nine runs, although thanks to those three errors, only five of the runs were earned. Leal also struck out three and walked a pair.

South Bend creeped within 12-8 against Ryan Pennell in the seventh courtesy of Cael Brockmeyer's three-run home run - his third of the season and second against the Hot Rods - and Jeffrey Baez's RBI double, but the home squad got no closer.

Blanchard finished the day with three RBI and three runs scored, going 3-for-5, while Unroe tied a season-high with three hits and three runs. Milone, James and Jackson added two hits each as part of Bowling Green's 13-hit attack. In the top three spots of the order, Milone, Unroe and Blanchard combined to hit 8-for-14 with five RBI and eight runs scored.

Bowling Green returns home for a three-game set against Lansing, the very team the Hot Rods find themselves tied with atop the Midwest League's Eastern Division. Henry Centeno (2-2, 5.23) opposes Chase De Jong (4-3, 3.66) in the first of a seven-game homestand, starting Tuesday at 6:35 p.m. CDT.

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