Greg Harris Dominant As Hot Rods Defeat Loons 6-2

Bowling Green, Ky. - Greg Harris retired 15 of the 19 batters he faced over 5.0 strong innings in winning his fourth straight start, as the Hot Rods opened a three-game series against Great Lakes with a 6-2 victory in front of 2,169 fans at Bowling Green Ballpark on Wednesday evening.

Bowling Green (10-9, 48-42) clinches its third victory in a row overall, while Great Lakes (7-13, 45-43) drops to 2-3 on its seven-game road trip.

Harris (7-5) struck out six and walked two while surrendering only one hit, a Justin Chigbogu single in the top of the fourth inning. That fourth inning proved to be the most difficult of the night for Harris, who walked Matt Beaty with one out, allowed Chigbogu's single with two outs and hit Mike Ahmed in the arm on a 1-2 pitch in the next at-bat to load the bases, but escaped the jam by striking out Spencer Navin.

Over four starts in the second half, the California native has tossed 23.1 innings, surrendering 17 hits but only allowing two earned runs for a 0.78 ERA, while walking just four batters to 29 strikeouts. Harris became the second Hot Rod this season to win four consecutive starts, joining All-Star Chris Pike, who won four in a row from April 25 through May 15.

Bowling Green scored the first five runs of the ballgame, grabbing a 1-0 lead in the opening inning against Loons' knuckleballer Matt Shelton. Riley Unroe drew a one-out walk and moved to third on a single by Bralin Jackson in the next at-bat on a perfectly-executed hit-and-run. With Justin Williams at the plate, Shelton tossed a wild pitch to the backstop, scoring Unroe from third.

Cristian Toribio delivered the next two runs in the bottom of the fourth on a high-chopping RBI single into left field scoring Nick Ciuffo, who reached on an infield single to lead off the inning, and Grant Kay, who walked following Ciuffo's single, to make it 3-0 Hot Rods.

In the fifth, Bowling Green added two more runs, when Williams doubled down the first base line to score Jackson from first after a leadoff walk, giving the Hot Rods a 4-0 advantage. Ciuffo's RBI double one pitch later plated Williams to put the Loons behind 5-0.

Ryan Pennell came into the game in the top of the sixth in relief of Harris to protect a 5-0 Hot Rods lead, but walked Kyle Garlick and Chigbogu with two outs before escaping the inning on a pop out up from Mike Ahmed.

Great Lakes, though, broke through in the top of the seventh against Edgar Gomez, when Spencer Navin hit his first professional home run over the left-field fence on the first pitch of the inning to give the Loons their first run at 5-1. Federico Celli doubled in the next at-bat and eventually scored on a one-out Alex Verdugo sacrifice fly, cutting the Hot Rods' lead to 5-2.

Justin Williams powered home an insurance run for the Hot Rods with one out in the bottom of the seventh, clobbering his seventh home run of the year - and third against Great Lakes at Bowling Green Ballpark - over the left-centerfield fence off reliever Cameron Palmer, upping the Hot Rods edge to 6-2.

Gomez put just one more Loon batter on base - a leadoff single by Garlick in the eighth - in penning the final 3.0 innings to collect his fourth save of the season.

Shelton (1-1) was touched for seven hits and five earned runs over his 6.0 innings of work, walking five and striking out two.

Ciuffo, Williams and Toribio combined to go 7-for-11 with all five Bowling Green RBI - led by three hits from Ciuffo and a pair of RBI from Williams and Toribio - but the Hot Rods as a team hit 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, leaving seven men on-base. Kay also saw his career-high 10-game hitting streak come to a close, reaching base only via a fourth-inning walk.

Bowling Green looks to clinch the three-game series on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. CDT when Hyrum Formo (4-3, 4.67) returns to the Bowling Green Ballpark bump, opposing Great Lakes lefty Luis De Paula (0-1, 7.71).

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