Hawks Home Runs, Watts' Pitching Cools Hot Rods

 

Left fielder Mike Lang hit his first homerun of the season for the winning run, backing up South Bend starter Daniel Watts (10-3) as the South Bend Silver Hawks (48-29, 4-4) beat the Bowling Green Hot Rods (42-34, 4-4) 4-2 on Thursday night. Third baseman Brandon Drury added a pair of doubles, his 28th and 29th of the season, to add to his Midwest League leading total in front of 3,570 fans at Coveleski Regional Stadium.

 

In a complete reversal from Wednesday night's game, the Hawks jumped out in front in the first inning. Second baseman Fidel Pena walked to lead off the inning. Two consecutive groundouts advanced Pena around to third base with two outs. Third baseman Brandon Drury then lined a single over the shortstop and into left field to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. That was all that South Bend, the Class-A Affiliate of the National League West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks, would manage against Bowling Green starter Blake Snell, who pitched five innings and only allowed one hit and one run while walking four batters. Snell was helped out by two outstanding defensive plays by his fielders. First, centerfielder Andrew Toles robbed Hawks first basemen Carter Bell of a base hit with a diving catch in the second inning. Later on, in the fifth inning, shortstop Leonardo Reginatto made a barehanded grab in the hole after a grounder deflected off of Snell's glove and fired across to first base to get Pena by a step.

Bowling Green, the Class-A Affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, would rally to take the lead in the top of the fifth inning. Reginatto lined a single into right field with one out. Right fielder Joey Rickard then hit a 3-2 offering from Watts into the left field seats for a two-run homer and a 2-1 Hot Rods lead. This was all that Watts would surrender on the night as he went seven impressive innings, allowing four hits and two runs while striking out seven.

The Hawks tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning against Bowling Green reliever Matt Spann (1-1). Spann struck out the first batter he faced, but then Drury laced a double into the right field corner for his second hit of the game. Catcher Ronnie Freeman advanced Drury to third base on a ground ball to second. Spann then threw a wild pitch to the backstop that allowed Drury to score the tying run on a head-first slide.

Despite a recent spate of electrical outages in town, the Silver Hawks put on quite a power display in the bottom of the seventh inning. Left fielder Mike Lang hit his first homerun of the season with one out and nobody on base to give the Hawks a 3-2 lead. Two batters later, Spann served up another homerun ball as Pena hit a 2-0 pitch over the left field fence for a 4-2 Hawks lead. The Hawks bullpen took over from there as Thomas Brendel and Enrique Burgos (S, 6) closed the door on the Hot Rods in the last two innings.

The Hawks and Hot Rods will play the rubber game of the three-game series on Friday night at 7:35pm. Dylan Floro (6-2, 2.08 ERA) gets the start for the Hot Rods while Brandon Sinnery (4-3, 3.30 ERA) takes the mound for the Silver Hawks. There are free wine tastings at the Cove as well as it being a Fireworks Friday. So come on out to see your First Half Midwest League Eastern Division Champion Silver Hawks.