Tavarez, Verdung Shine in 15-Hit Thumping of Bowling Green

BOWLING GREEN, KY – The five through nine batters in the Emperors lineup Thursday night went a combined 13-for-22 (.590) with four extra-base hits, including two homeruns, and owned every one of Rome’s nine runs driven in. Angel Flores’ group is now back to .500 after back-to-back wins against the defending SAL champions.

For the third straight game, Rome drew first blood. This time, on a Justin Janas solo homerun to right field off Marcus Johnson’s 2-0 fastball. Johnson scattered a handful of singles over the first four innings; his only mistake being the middle-middle fastball to Janas that put a hole in the video board in right field.

That narrative would change in the fifth. Will Verdung’s leadoff double and Bryson Hornes ensuing single tacked on a run. Then, with Horne on the bases, Stephen Paolini’s first big fly of 2025 doubled the Emperors lead and signaled the end of Johnson’s start for Bowling Green.

JR Ritchie enjoyed the early run support, cruising through five innings of work while seeing just four baserunners. A leadoff single and a one-out walk in the sixth inning prompted a pitching change for Rome, as Flores turned to Sam LaPorte to find the last out of the sixth with Ritchie’s pitch count up over 80. Ritchie struck out four and walked three over 5.2 scoreless innings, lowering his season ERA to 1.86.

Four consecutive singles from Rome’s 4-5-6-7 batters commenced the top of a three-run eighth inning for the Emperors. A ninth-inning Ambioris Tavarez double to left field, coupled with Verdung’s third hit of the game, added one more for good measure for the Emperors. Bourassa took the reigns on the mound following LaPorte and struck out a trio of HotRods in two innings of work.

Now 3-3 overall, the Emperors head into the weekend needed just one more win to secure a series split with the HotRods. Garrett Baumann toes the rubber in game four Friday at 7:30PM ET.