Honeywell Tosses Seven No-Hit Frames, Hot Rods Humble TinCaps

Bowling Green, Ky. - Brent Honeywell put forth the best start of his young career, humming 7.0 no-hit innings in leading Bowling Green (22-15) to an 8-3 victory over Fort Wayne (11-23) in front of 1,773 fans at Bowling Green Ballpark Sunday afternoon.

Honeywell (3-2) needed just 32 pitches to retire the first nine batters of the game and after Jace Conrad's sliding catch in left field with two outs in the fifth on Chase Jensen's sinking line drive, the 6-2 right-hander was perfect through 5.0 innings.

The eighth-best prospect in the Rays system, according to Baseball America, lost the perfecto bid, though, when Henry Charles walked to start the sixth, but Mac James caught Charles stealing to end the frame, and Honeywell took a no-hitter into the seventh for the second time this season.

He made quick work of the TinCaps in that seventh, fanning two in a 1-2-3 stanza to finish with eight strikeouts while facing the minimum of 21 batters. Honeywell lowered his ERA to 1.66, sixth-best in the Midwest League.

Ernesto Montas set down the first seven Hot Rods he faced into the third inning, but Hunter Lockwood popped the cork on an offensive outburst by cranking a one-out triple off the top of the centerfield fence. With Bralin Jackson at bat, ball four of the plate appearance sailed to the backstop allowing Lockwood to score on the wild pitch for the 1-0 lead. Jackson then stole second, took third on Thomas Milone's single and came home on Riley Unroe's sacrifice fly, 2-0 Bowling Green.

Casey Gillaspie's RBI single in the fourth and Coty Blanchard's two-out RBI single in the fifth upped the lead to 4-0, but the piledriver came in the sixth, when Lockwood launched the initial offering out to left for a two-out, two-run home run for his second bomb of the year and a 6-0 margin.

Montas (2-3) gave up six runs on eight hits over 6.0 innings and is now winless over his last five starts.

More two out thunder came in the seventh, when Blanchard received a free pass from reliever Kyle McGrath, and Gillaspie roped the first pitch he saw inside the foul pole in left for his league-leading seventh circuit clout of the year and the 8-0 advantage. The Hot Rods scored their final five runs after two outs.

Bowling Green came within six outs of the franchise's third no-hitter all-time, but Duanel Jones led off the eighth against Kyle Bird by doubling off the wall in left-centerfield, and the shutout bid was gone the next batter on Trae Santos' fifth home run of the season - and second of the series - over the right-centerfield fence cutting the deficit to 8-2.

Edwin Moreno's two-out single made for an 8-3 score, but Fort Wayne got no closer, as Damion Carroll worked around consecutive singles to start the ninth to help the Hot Rods improve to 13-5 at Bowling Green Ballpark and to 8-1 over their last nine individual series.

Gillaspie finished with three RBI and tied his personal career-high with his seventh home run, while Lockwood, Milone and Blanchard all had two hits, as well. The Hot Rods finished 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position after going 3-for-20 over the first two games of the set.

This seven-game homestand continues Monday at 6:35 p.m. CDT with the first of a four-game series against the West Michigan Whitecaps (Tigers). Greg Harris (2-2, 2.17) takes to the firing line for the Hot Rods against Whitecaps right-hander Jeff Thompson (0-4, 6.41) in a pitching rematch from last Tuesday at Fifth Third Ballpark, which Bowling Green won by a 5-1 final.

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Hot Rods Baseball - It's Just #Funner