Bullpen Comes Up Huge in 4-2 Dash Victory

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (August 12, 2022) — The Winston-Salem Dash combined timely hitting with a strong bullpen performance to grab a 4-2 win over the Bowling Green Hot Rods.

Christian Mena authored a scoreless top of the first, and the Dash offense quickly got to work in the bottom half. Duke Ellis led off with a single, then both Colson Montgomery and Alsander Womack drew walks to load the bases with nobody out. After a pop out, Ben Norman drew a walk to force Ellis in and give the Dash an early 1-0 lead.

Bowling Green got a double from Logan Driscoll to begin the second inning, then a passed ball allowed him to take third base. The next batter Johan Lopez singled to shallow right field, which scored Driscoll and tied the game at 1-1.

In the home half of the second, Jason Matthews got hit by a pitch to open the inning. After two quick outs, Colson Montgomery ripped a double off the right field wall, and Matthews sped home to re-establish the Dash lead at 2-1.

Unfortunately, Christian Mena had to leave the game with two outs in the second inning with athletic trainer Carson Wooten. Up to that point though, Mena was dealing. He fanned seven Hot Rods hitters across 2.2 innings, while allowing just one run on a pair of base hits.

Ty Madrigal held the game at 2-1 through the fourth, then Nick Gallagher tossed a scoreless top of the fifth. In the bottom half for Winston-Salem, Alsander Womack kicked things off with a single before Luis Mieses reached on an E4. That set the table for Ben Norman, who scorched an RBI double to plate Womack.

Gallagher held Bowling Green scoreless through two more innings, then the Dash bats added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh. It came from the cleanup man Luis Mieses, who smacked his 11th home run of the year. That solo shot put the Dash up 4-1 going into the eighth.

In the top of the ninth, Bowling Green put some traffic on the basepaths down three runs. Heriberto Hernandez singled off Skyler Arias, then Logan Driscoll also singled. A balk pushed both base runners up a base, then Johan Lopez plated Hernandez to cut the Winston-Salem lead to 4-2. But Arias bore down after that, and induced an inning-ending double play to lock down a 4-2 win. Arias got the save, with Ty Madrigal earning the win and Austin Vernon taking the loss.