Peoria Hangs on to Beat Hot Rods in Series Opener

Peoria, Ill. - The Bowling Green Hot Rods (Class-A/Tampa Bay Rays) fought back from a 6-2 deficit to cut the lead to just one, but they were unable to overtake the Peoria Chiefs (St. Louis Cardinals) in a 6-5 loss on Friday night. The Hot Rods could not end their losing streak, which now stands at six games. Johnny Field led the offensive charge with two hits, one of them a home run.

The Chiefs got on the board first with a run in the second. Kenny Peoples-Walls doubled to left field, and came around to score when Cesar Valera hit a single to left-center field.

The Hot Rods would grab the lead with a home run in the third. Kean Wong extended his hitting streak to six games with a one-out single, and would later score when Field hit a towering home run over the left field fence. '

After a two-run home run by Ronald Castillo gave the lead back to Peoria, the advantage grew larger as Peoria scored three in their half of the fourth. With Michael Schulze and Steve Bean aboard, C.J. McElroy Jr. doubled home Bean and moved Schulze to third base. That setup Juan Herrera, who hit a two-run double to left field to extend the Hot Rods deficit to 6-2.

Bowling Green would battle back, as they scored two more in the fifth, and would cut the deficit to one in the eighth. Granden Goetzman wasted no time as he hit a line-drive home run over the left field fence to slice the Chiefs lead to just 6-5, but that the Hot Rods were unable to regain the advantage.

Silfredo Garcia (1-1) allowed four runs in five innings, but he earned the win for Peoria. Chris Kirsch (0-2) picked up the loss for the Hot Rods.

Bowling Green will play game two of their three-game series with the Chiefs at a special time on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is slated for 1:00 p.m., and Hunter Wood (0-0, 7.71) will get the starting nod for the Hot Rods. Fans can follow the action on 1340 WBGN - The Ticket, or by listening at BGHotRods.com. The pre-game show gets underway at 12:45 p.m. The Hot Rods return to Bowling Green on Monday night when they open up a six-game homestand at Bowling Green Ballpark.

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