Pike Picks up Sixth Win, BG Opens Road Trip with 3-1 Win
June 3, 2015 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Bowling Green Hot Rods News Release
Geneva, Ill. - Chris Pike picked up his sixth win of the season despite a career high five walks, as the Hot Rods opened their six-game Western Division road trip with a 3-1 win over Kane County in front of 2,863 at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark Wednesday evening.
Pike (6-1) gave up four hits and struck out three Cougars, but only allowed one run. Three of Pike's five walks came consecutively with one in the first inning, but Mac James threw out Ildemaro Vargas trying to steal second after the first free pass in helping Pike escape the frame without getting touched up for a run.
Bowling Green (29-24) struck in the top of the third inning against Kane County (26-27) starter Ethan Elias, when Grant Kay and Bralin Jackson led off with back-to-back singles and Cristian Toribio was hit by pitch to load the bags with no outs. Elias' 0-2 pitch to Thomas Milone skipped to the backstop to score Kay and give the Hot Rods a 1-0 lead. The Hot Rods loaded the bases again following a walk to Jace Conrad, but the threat came to an end when Casey Gillaspie grounded into a double play to end the inning, the first of four BG double plays on the evening, setting a new season high.
Kane County responded in the bottom half on Cody Regis' two-out bloop single to left just out of Jackson's reach that scored Vargas all the way from first to tie the affair 1-1.
With two down in the top of the fifth, Toribio beat out an infield single and hustled around the bases to score on Milone's opposite field RBI double for the 2-1 Hot Rods lead.
Pike labored through walks and baserunners to finish the fifth inning, receiving his first groundball double play of the season off the bat of Marty Herum to end his evening.
Jackson made it 3-1 in the top of the ninth inning, singling home Nick Ciuffo, who singled to open the frame and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch from Cougar reliever Cody Geyer.
Kane County outhit the Hot Rods (10 to 8), but Ryan Pennell and Kyle Bird turned in four innings of scoreless relief to seal the deal. Bird benefitted from a fabulous double play turn by Kay at third in the eighth to escape a first-and-second, one-out jam in the eighth and picked off pinch-runner Dane McFarland at first in the ninth to collect his sixth save of the season, which ties him for fifth most in the Midwest League.
Elias (5-2) logged a career-high 7.0 innings, permitting only two runs on six hits while walking two and striking out just one.
Ciuffo and Jackson turned in two-hit games, while Jackson continued his hot hitting, extending his career-long hit streak to 11 games, notching his seventh multi-hit effort during the streak.
Bowling Green looks to clinch the series win Thursday night, when Enderson Franco (3-4, 3.60) toes the rubber against Cougar righty Brad Keller (2-5, 2.67) for a 6:30 p.m. CDT start.
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