Thomas Extends Hitting Streak in Hot Rods Loss

[Game recap provided by Tom Gauthier of Bowling Green Hot Rods.]

Bowling Green, KY - Mark Thomas singled in the bottom of the sixth inning to extend his hitting streak to a team-best 12 games on Thursday night at Bowling Green Ballpark. The base hit was one of the lone bright spots for the Hot Rods (4-3, 35-41) as they dropped a 9-2 decision to begin a three-game series against the Fort Wayne TinCaps (4-3, 40-37).

Fort Wayne jumped on the board early by scoring five runs in the second inning against starter Kyle Lobstein. The left-hander, coming off a perfect month of June, allowed five runs on four hits and three walks in the frame to fall behind early, 5-0.

Lobstein (5-4) settled down after that, working five innings before leaving the game in a 6-0 hole. He allowed an extra run to score in the fifth, giving up six earned in the game. He surrendered six hits, walked four, and struck out two to take his first lost in six starts.

Fort Wayne tacked on another three runs against Aaron Dott in the top of the sixth inning to bump their lead to nine runs. Only one run was earned as shortstop Robi Estrada made an error that ultimately led to an extra pair of runs scoring. Dott worked the final four innings in relief of Lobstein, allowing one earned run on three hits, two walks, and six strikeouts.

Thomas finished the game 1-4 with his single. He is hitting 19-46 during his 12-game streak, good for a .413 average. Since June 1, he has hit safely in 19 of 21 games to raise his average from .253 to .294.

The Hot Rods avoided their third shutout of the season in the bottom of the ninth as Ty Morrison smacked an RBI double into the left field corner. That was followed by an RBI single to right field by Chris Murrill to cut the lead to 9-2.

The Hot Rods will try to even the series on Friday night with a post-game edition of the Family Fireworks Series presented by The Gables, Western Place, Clean Freaks, Home-Town Suites, Lawless Wiesemann Orthodontics, and WBKO. First pitch is at 7:05 PM. For tickets, visit www.bghotrods.com, call 270.901.2121, or head to the Ticket Office at Bowling Green Ballpark.

The pitching match-up features RHP Wilking Rodriguez (4-6, 3.92) against Fort Wayne LHP Pedro Hernandez (2-3, 4.60). You can listen to the game with Tom Gauthier and Hank Fuerst beginning at 6:50 on 1340 AM WBGN and www.bghotrods.com.