Five-Run Seventh Propels Hot Rods to 6-5 Series Sweep of Lansing

Lansing, Mich. - Mac James' three-run home run sparked a five-run seventh inning for Bowling Green (15-9), as the Hot Rods erased a four-run deficit to claim a 6-5 victory over Lansing (14-10) in front of 4,156 fans at Cooley Law School Stadium on Sunday afternoon to clinch the three-game sweep on and now sit in sole possession of first place in the Midwest League's Eastern Division.

In the process, Bowling Green registered its first-ever sweep in Lansing and improved to 5-1 against the Lugnuts this season. The Hot Rods have also won four straight overall, finished the Michigan road trip with a 5-1 mark, and have now won 13 of their last 16 games.

Bowling Green was straightjacketed by Lansing starter Conner Greene through the first 6.0 frames, scoring just one unearned run on one hit - an infield single from Coty Blanchard in the fifth.

With the Lugnuts ahead 5-1 to start the seventh, Jace Conrad smashed the first pitch of the inning over the 23-foot high wall in right and tucked it inside the foul pole for his third homer of the year to cut the Lugnuts lead to 5-2 and extend his hitting streak to 14 games, which is tied for the fifth-longest streak in Hot Rods history.

Casey Gillaspie followed with a four-pitch walk, and Grant Kay doubled him to third base before the first out of the inning was recorded on Blanchard's pop out. Bralin Jackson then stepped in and roped a RBI single out left field to bring home Gillaspie for a 5-3 score, while lengthening his on-base streak to 18 consecutive games.

That spelled the end of the day for Greene, but the Hot Rods still had runners at first and second with just one out, when Andrew Case (2-2) was summoned from the Lansing bullpen.

James was the first man to face Case, and on a 1-0 fastball, clobbered his first professional home run over the left-field wall, bringing home Kay and Jackson to give the Hot Rods the decisive 6-5 advantage.

Greene took a no-decision, pitching 6.1 innings while allowing five runs on just four hits with a pair of walks and four strikeouts.

Reliever Damion Carroll issued a one-out walk to Rowdy Tellez in the bottom of the seventh and tossed a wild pitch that moved him to second. The right-hander, though, came back to notch consecutive looking strikeouts on 3-2 fastballs, disposing of Ryan McBroom - resulting in the ejection of Lansing manager Ken Huckaby - and Justin Atkinson to end the threat.

Carroll fanned four over 2.0 hitless innings of relief, while Kyle Bird retired the side in order in the ninth including a series-ending looking strikeout from J.D. Davis on a 3-2 fastball to record his third save of the season.

While Greene retired the first nine Hot Rods he faced, the Lugnuts began the scoring, ratcheting out five straight hits to start the bottom of the third inning. Tim Locastro led off the frame with a single, and made his way around the entire base paths following an errant pickoff attempt from Hot Rods starter Enderson Franco for the 1-0 lead. Anthony Alford, Richard Urena and J.D. Davis proceeded to reach base with back-to-back-to-back infield singles, and Alford came across the plate on a Tellez RBI single into right field, 2-0 Lansing. McBroom's double-play grounder plated Urena to up the margin to 3-0.

Bowling Green got a run back in the top of the fourth, when Thomas Milone reached on an error and moved to third on Greene's errant pickoff throw. Conrad lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Milone, trimming the score to 3-1.

Lansing pushed its lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning on an opposite field two-run home run by Tellez, his fourth circuit clout of the season.

Franco (2-1) allowed five runs on 10 hits - tying season-highs for a Hot Rods starter - through his 6.0 innings of work, but the Venezuelan picked up his second win of the season due to the seventh-inning rally, as Bowling Green won its sixth one-run game of the year.

After a successful six-game road trip, the Hot Rods return to Bowling Green Ballpark on Monday night, beginning a six-game homestand with a three-game set against the Lake County Captains, Bowling Green's Opening Night starter Brent Honeywell (2-1, 0.82) takes to the bump to face Lake County southpaw Justus Sheffield (2-1, 2.60) in a 6:35 p.m. CDT start.

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