Bowling Green Hot Rods 6, Lake County Captains 1

[Via email from Tom Gauthier, the Hot Rods Director of Broadcast/Media Relations.]

Eastlake, OH – Alexander Colome and the Hot Rods continued their strong month of May, coming away with a 6-1 series-opening victory over the Lake County Captains (22-10) on Monday night. The win is the second straight for Bowling Green, improving their record to 3-1 on their six game road trip. They are now 6-3 through nine games in May.

In the early going, both teams had a runner thrown out at home plate. For the Hot Rods it came in the first as Tyler Bortnick stood at second base with two outs for Ryan Wiegand. Wiegand singled through the hole at shortstop and Bortnick was waved home by manager Brady Williams. From left field, the Captains’ Bo Greenwell fired a strike to home plate, and the catcher, Roberto Perez, held onto the ball as Bortnick collided with him for the final out of the inning.

The Captains equaled the feat in the third inning with Ben Carlson standing at third base with one out. Casey Frawley hit a slow bouncer to third that was mishandled by Julio Cedeno. Carlson was not running on contact, but once Cedeno missed the ball, he took off for home. Alertly, Diogenes Luis was backing up the play, picked up the ball, and threw Carlson out at home plate to keep the game scoreless.

After that, both starting pitchers cruised through five innings before Lake County went to its bullpen for the sixth. Facing Francisco Jimenez, Diogenese Luis (single), Ty Morrison (error), and Chris Murrill (sacrifice) all bunted to begin the inning, leaving Luis and Morrison at second and third after Murrill’s sac. Kyle Spraker followed with a single into left field, scoring Luis and Morrison to give the Hot Rods a 2-0 lead.

After Spraker reached, Tyler Bortnick drew a walk to put runners at first and second for Wiegand. Having already extended his hitting streak to nine games, Wiegand made it two straight with an RBI, driving a base hit to right field to score Spraker and move Bortnick to third. After a pitching change, Bortnick scored on a bunt single by Mayo Acosta to put the Hot Rods on top 4-0.

Lake County tallied a solo run in the bottom of the sixth, coming on Jeremie Tice’s two-out home run to right field. Colome finished the inning one batter later, completing six full frames. He allowed one run on four hits, striking out six and walking just one. He’s now gone six straight starts allowing one earned run or less.

Bowling Green tacked on two more runs in the ninth inning against relief pitcher Tyler Sturdevant. With one out, Julio Cedeno singled and Diogenes Luis reached on an error. After Morrison popped out, Murrill tripled into the left field corner to drive home Cedeno and Luis to cap the scoring at 6-1.

The series continues from Classic Park on Tuesday night as RHP Shane Dyer (2-2, 1.25) takes on Lake County RHP Danny Salazar (1-1, 6.08). First pitch is at 5:30 PM CDT. You can follow the game with Tom Gauthier beginning at 5:15 PM on 1340 WBGN and www.bghotrods.com.

The team returns home to open a four-game set with the Lansing Lugnuts (Toronto Blue Jays) on Thursday, May 13 at 7:05 PM. Thursday’s promotions include Thirsty Thursday presented by Beaver 96.7 FM and All Hit WUHU 107 and Hootiepalooza Night presented by WNKY. Hootiepalooza celebrates the birthday of Darius Rucker, country music star and lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, and features a charity raffle for an acoustic guitar autographed by Rucker. For tickets, visit www.bghotrods.com or call 270.901.2121.

NOTES: Spraker’s two-run single is his third in the last three games having accomplished the feat on Saturday and Sunday in West Michigan…Wiegand has six hits in 12 at-bats on the road trip.