Drive fall 5-4 to Hot Rods in extras

The Bowling Green Hot Rods (14-9, 50-38) outlasted the Greenville Drive (13-10, 39-50) in extras in game two of the Saturday doubleheader at Fluor Field, picking up a one-out base knock in the top of the eighth to plate the go-ahead run and hold on for a 5-4 victory at Fluor Field.

The split of the doubleheader, with Greenville taking game one 5-0 earlier in the afternoon, sets up a Sunday winner-take-all series finale.

The Drive fought back from a 4-2 deficit in the seventh, stringing together one-out knocks from Luis Ravelo and Eduardo Lopez, the latter a double to put two in scoring position. Enderso Lira delivered his most clutch at-bat of the season, driving both runners in with a single past shortstop Gregory Barrios to knot the game at 4-4.

The Drive first made things interesting in the sixth, trailing 3-0, having been held hitless through 5 ⅔ innings before Miguel Bleis reached on an infield single on a bang-bang call at first. Cutter Coffey barreled up a double that nearly cleared the fence in center field, scoring Bleis before Coffey would in turn cross the plate on a Jhostynxon Garcia triple to the deepest part of the ballpark.

Allan Castro would drive a pitch to deep center field nearly burning Ryan Cermak but Cermak made the catch with a leaping grab at the wall to preserve the 3-2 lead.

Adam Smith, who tossed a 1-2-3 sixth inning with two strikeouts, gave up a leadoff homer to Haas to extend the lead to 4-2. Smith returned to the mound in the eighth as the game turned to extras, giving up a single that scored ghost runner Brayden Taylor for a 5-4 Hot Rods’ lead.

Greenville went down in order in the eighth, getting ghost runner Miguel Bleis to third on a groundout, but Castro groundout to second to preserve the Hot Rods’ 5-4 victory.

Yordanny Monegro backed up his recent start in Rome with another impressive performance in the early going on Saturday. Monegro worked around back-to-back two-out walks in the third, stifling the Hot Rods attempt at taking the early lead. He ultimately tossed four innings for the Drive allowing one hit and three walks with two strikeouts.

Hot Rods’ starter Chandler Murphy held the Drive hitless through five innings collecting four strikeouts in the process, issuing two walks for the only baserunners he allowed.

With Murphy dealing, the Hot Rods finally cracked the Drive in the fifth, loading the bases on reliever Jeremy Wu-Yelland with one out before Cooper Kinney rocketed a pitch off the Greenville Monster to score two. Kinney would be thrown out at second trying to stretch the hit into double.

The runs marked the first the Drive had given up in 20.1 innings as they shutout the Hot Rods in game one of the doubleheader Saturday and blanked the Rome Emperors back on Sunday, July 14th. Wu-Yelland tossed that lone inning for the Drive, picking up a strikeout while walking three.

Bowling Green tacked on another run as Wu-Yelland sailed a pitch over Enderso Lira, allowing Bryaden Taylor to score from third to boost the lead to 3-0.

The Drive return to action at 3:05 p.m. on Sunday, July 21st for the series finale with Bowling Green. The series is tied, 1-1.