Beech Tree News Network

Mead homers in Hot Rods second-straight victory

Greensboro, North Carolina– Grant Witherspoon broke the Bowling Green Hot Rods (65-27) career RBI record in a 10-2 win over the Greensboro Grasshoppers (58-34) on Wednesday night at First National Bank Field in Greensboro, North Carolina. The two teams will play the fourth game of the series on Thursday with a 5:30 PM CT first pitch.

The Hot Rods plated a half-dozen runs in the first two innings against Greensboro starter Santiago Florez. Connor Hollis was hit by a pitch and stole second base, scoring on Brett Wisely’s double. With one out, Wisely scored when Witherspoon lifted a sacrifice fly into the outfield to give the Hot Rods a 2-0 advantage. The RBI gave Witherspoon 112 between 2019 and 2021, breaking the record for most RBIs in a Hot Rods career.

Four more Bowling Green runs scored in the second against Florez. Jacson McGowan led off with a double to left and Roberto Alvarez singled to right. With one out, Hollis drove in a run with a single and scored when Curtis Mead smacked a bases-loaded double to the outfield, clearing the base paths to give the Hot Rods a 6-0 lead.

Mead hit a solo homer, his fourth long ball of the season, in the fourth inning to extend the lead to 7-0. Jared Triolo went deep for the Grasshoppers in the bottom of the fourth against Hot Rods starter Taj Bradley, and while Greensboro loaded the bases, the righty worked out the jam to keep the score 7-1.

Greensboro got another run in the fifth against Bradley, but Edwards drove in two more and Witherspoon drove in a run for the Hot Rods to expand the lead to 10-2 in the sixth. The bullpen shutout the Grasshoppers offense the rest of the way, taking the 10-2 win for the club’s 65th of the season.

Bradley (2-0) tossed 5.0 innings while allowing two runs on seven hits with a walk and six strikeouts in a winning effort. Angel Felipe went 2.0 shutout innings out of the bullpen, allowing two hits and a walk with three strikeouts. Chris Gau threw 2.0 innings of shutout ball, allowing two hits with two strikeouts.

Notes: Witherspoon became the Hot Rods career RBI leader on Wednesday… He passed Tyler Goeddel who had 111… He also had his 16th multi-RBI game this year… Wisely had his fourth multi-hit game of the season… Edwards had his ninth multi-hit game of 2021… It was also his 14th multi-rbi game this season… Alvarez had his fifth multi-hit game this season… Mead had 11th multi-hit game of the year… He also had four RBIs in a game for the first time with the Hot Rods… Qsar extended his hit streak to nine games… It’s his second nine-game streak of the season… Alvarez has a seven-game hit streak… BG has scored 10+ runs in three of their last six games… They’ve scored 27 runs in the first two games of the series against Greensboro… Every batter in the Hot Rods lineup had at least one hit… Wednesday marked the third time this season that BG had five doubles in a game, which is the season-high… Bowling Green in 5-3 against Greensboro this season… The team is 32-18 on the road in 2021… BG is 31-14 in games decided by four or more runs… They’re 42-15 when scoring first… When the Hot Rods outhit their opponent, they’re 44-3 this season… The Hot Rods and Grasshoppers will play the third game of the six-game series on Thursday with a 5:35 PM CT first pitch… Bowling Green will send LH John Doxakis (4- 1, 4.47) to the mound against Greensboro RH Domingo Gonzalez (1-1, 6.75)… Fans can catch all of the action by watching on MiLB.tv or listening through the MiLB First Pitch app, tuning into WBGN 94.5 FM and 1340 AM, or visiting https://www.milb.com/bowling-green/fans/audio-listen-live.

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