Witherspoon’s Four Hits Not Enough in Series Opening Walk-off Loss

Bowling Green, Kentucky– Grant Witherspoon had four hits and two RBIs in the Bowling Green Hot Rods (75-34) walk-off loss to the Winston-Salem Dash (40-68) at Truist Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The two teams will play the second game of the series on Wednesday with a 6:00 PM CT first pitch.

Bowling Green took a first-inning lead against Dash starter Dan Metzdorf. Alika Williams doubled to left and scored when Witherspoon singled to center field to make it a 1-0 game. The second inning yielded four more runs, three of which came off Williams’ 400-foot, three-run homer to left that gave the Hot Rods a 5-0 edge.

Winston-Salem scored runs in the second a third to come within three runs and made it a one-run game on Harvin Mendoza’s two-run homer in the sixth off Hot Rods reliever Zack Trageton. Bowling Green extended their lead in the eighth against Dash reliever Yoelvin Silven. Witherspoon led off with a single and went to second on a balk before Evan Edwards’ single advanced him to third. Hill Alexander lifted a sacrifice fly to center, plating Witherspoon to extend the Bowling Green lead to 6-4.

The Dash tied the game in the bottom of the eighth thanks to a two-run homer off the bat of Samir Duenez making it a 6-6 contest. The Hot Rods jumped back in front in the top of the ninth against Dash reliever McKinley Moore. Martinez bunted for a hit with one out and stole second base. With two outs, Curtis Mead hit an automatic double to right, scoring Martinez to take back the lead. Mead scored from second when Witherspoon singled to left, putting Bowling Green up 8-6. The Dash saw nine pitches, plating three runs in the bottom of the ninth to walk-off the first game of the series with a 9-8 win.

John Doxakis tossed 5.0 innings while allowing two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and a hit batsman. Trageton allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits in his fourth hold of the season. Nathan Witt allowed two runs on two hits with a walk and two strikeouts in 1.0 inning of relief work in his first blown save. Alan Strong (6-2) took the loss after his second blown save of the season, throwing 0.2 innings while letting up three runs on five hits in the ninth.

Notes: Williams had his third multi-hit game with Bowling Green… It was also his second multi-RBI game and first three-RBI game since coming to Bowling Green… Witherspoon had his 23rd multi-hit game of the season… It was also his 18th multi-hit game… His four hits were a season-high… It tied his career-high… Mead had his 17th multi-hit game of the season with Bowling Green… Martinez had three hits in a game for the fifth time this season… It was his 12th multi-hit game of the year… Doxakis tied his season-high with seven strikeouts… The Hot rods are 48-19 when scoring first… They’re 13-6 in the first game of a series… BG is 7-5 in games that the Hot Rods have the same number of hits as their opponents… The Hot Rods were 7-for-10 with runners in scoring position… They’re 6-1 against Winston-Salem this season… Tuesday’s loss marks their first in the month of September this season… The Hot Rods and Dash play the second game of a six-game series on Wednesday with a 6:00 PM CT first pitch… The Hot Rods will send RH Evan McKendry (3-2, 3.69) to the mound against Dash RH Kaleb Roper (1-7, 5.03)… 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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