MWL1 Bowling Green Hot Rods

Four-Run Eighth Leads Loons to 8-7 Win over Hot Rods

Published on April 29, 2015 under Midwest League (MWL1)
Bowling Green Hot Rods News Release


Midland, Mich. - Great Lakes (9-8) pushed across four runs in a decisive eighth-inning rally to turn back Bowling Green (11-9), 8-7, in front of 1,118 fans at Dow Diamond on Wednesday night.

Great Lakes fought all the way back from a 7-3 deficit in its final two at-bats, when Jimmy Allen led off the seventh inning with a double to left-centerfield and came around to score on a Johan Mieses' pinch-hit sacrifice fly to cut the Hot Rods lead to 7-4.

In the eighth, the Loons continued their assault on Hot Rods reliever Damion Carroll (0-1), as Julian Leon and Jacob Scavuzzo reached on singles, while Kelvin Ramos walked to load the bases with no one out. All three were brought home on Allen's line-drive triple to the left-centerfield alley to tie the game at 7-7. Carroll was then lifted for Mike Franco, who retired Mike Ahmed on a groundout but Faustino Oguisten brought in Allen with an infield RBI single for the 8-7 lead.

Bowling Green forged a two-out in the top of the ninth against reliever Bubby Rossman, when Coty Blanchard singled, and Bralin Jackson and Cristian Toribio drew consecutive walks to load the bases for Thomas Milone, but he grounded out to Rossman to end the game and give the righty his second save, as the Hot Rods stranded the bases loaded for third time in the contest leaving a season-high 12 men on in the process.

It was Great Lakes who took the first lead of the game in the first inning, when Oguisten singled with one out and advanced to third base on Alex Verdugo's single. With two outs, Nick Ciuffo appeared to have Oguisten picked off third, but his throw glanced off the heel of Grant Kay's glove, allowing Oguisten to come home for the 1-0 lead and snap a 25-inning scoreless streak for the Loons.

Casey Gillaspie quickly tied the contest at 1-1 in the second, hammering a high fastball from Loons starter Grant Holmes over the right-field wall for his third four-bagger of the season.

Toribio also played long-ball, giving Bowling Green a 2-1 lead in the third inning by also sending an opposite-field home run over the right field fence for his second of the year. In the very next at-bat, Milone singled into right field and was followed by walks to Riley Unroe and Gillaspie before Justin Williams singled off Holmes' glove to bring Milone across the plate, making it 3-1 Hot Rods. Unroe then scored on a Ciuffo sac fly, while Gillaspie was the last of four Hot Rods to score in the third inning by scoring on Blanchard's RBI single for the 5-1 margin.

Hot Rods starter Greg Harris gave two of those runs back in the bottom half on Oguisten's RBI triple off the right field fence, with Verdugo plating him with a single in the next at-bat, closing the gap to 5-3.

In his return to Dow Diamond after making 16 starts for Great Lakes in 2014 as a Dodgers farmhand, Harris worked a season-low 3.0 innings due to a high pitch count that saw seven of 15 batters work 3-2 counts. The Los Alamitos, Calif. native allowed three runs on five hits while walking two and fanning three.

Bowling Green notched single runs in the fourth and fifth innings, when Unroe came home for his second run scored in the fourth inning on a two-out error by first baseman Josmar Cordero, while a leadoff double by Blanchard in the fifth produced a two-out run courtesy of a strikeout wild pitch by reliever Kyle Hooper with Milone batting, re-extending the lead to four at 7-3.

Holmes was touched up for six runs on seven hits in just 3.2 innings of work with four walks and a season-high tying six punchouts.

Loons relievers Yeuri Gonzalez (1-1) silenced the Hot Rods over 3.0 innings of one-hit relief to earn his first win.

Williams and Blanchard had three hits each for Bowling Green, which drew a season-high eight walks. Jackson also increased his on-base steak to 15 straight games with that ninth-inning walk from Rossman.

Oguisten, Allen and Scavuzzo all had three knocks for the Loons which tied a season-high with 13 hits as a team.

Bowling Green and Great Lakes will face one another in the rubber match on Thursday at 5:05 p.m. CDT from Dow Diamond, when the Hot Rods send right-hander Hyrum Formo (1-0, 3.94) to face Loons righty Trevor Oaks (2-0, 0.53), who ranks third in circuit in ERA.

Check out the Bowling Green Hot Rods Statistics

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Midwest League Stories from April 29, 2015


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