Cook Fans Five in High-A Debut, Hot Rods Fall 9-1 in Greensboro

Greensboro, North Carolina – Alex Cook struck out five over a career-high 3.1 innings during his High-A debut, but the Bowling Green Hot Rods (27-19, 58-49) dropped their third straight game in a 9-1 loss to the Greensboro Grasshoppers (24-22, 60-50) on Saturday from First National Bank Field.

Bowling Green began the scoring in the top of the first against Greensboro starter J.P. Massey. Shane Sasaki led off with a double and moved up to third on a groundout. Dominic Keegan grounded out to third, scoring Sasaki to put the Hot Rods up 1-0.

The Grasshoppers answered back with five runs off Hot Rods starter J.J. Goss in the bottom of the second, capped off with a grand slam by Termarr Johnson. Greensboro went up 9-1 with four more runs against Goss in the bottom of the third, highlighted by a three-run homer from Brenden Dixon.

The Hot Rods went scoreless the rest of the way, falling by a final score of 9-1.

Santiago Florez (5-2) earned the win, striking out three over 3.0 perfect frames. Goss (5-5) took the loss, letting up nine runs on 10 hits, two walks, and three strikeouts over 2.2 innings. Jaycob Deese (1) notched the save, allowing a hit and striking out four over 3.0 shutout innings.

The Hot Rods and the Grasshoppers play the finale of a six-game series on Sunday with first pitch set for 1:00 PM CT. Bowling Green is set to start RHP Duncan Davitt (3-2, 3.26), while RHP Po-Yu Chen toes the slab for Greensboro.

Fans can catch all the action by watching on MiLB.tv or listening through the MiLB First Pitch App, tuning into Talk 104.1 FM and 930 AM WKCT, or visiting https://www.milb.com/bowling-green/fans/audio-listen-live.

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Hot Rods Baseball