In front of a sold out crowd of 6,028 fans, the Bowling Green Hot Rods celebrated July 4 appropriately with a 5-2 series-opening win against the Dayton Dragons at Bowling Green Ballpark on Tuesday night.
Much like the two previous games, the Hot Rods got a gem from their starting pitcher.
On Tuesday, Willy Ortiz (W, 3-1) tossed seven scoreless innings, giving up just three hits with five strikeouts.
Over the last three starts, the Hot Rods pitchers have given up just two combined runs in a span of 21 innings pitched.
Ortiz is now 3-0 over his last four starts with a 2.86 earned run average.
Bowling Green provided enough runs support for Ortiz in the middle innings with a solo homer from outfielder Jesus Sanchez in the fourth inning and a two-run homer by second basemen Robbie Tenerowicz in the sixth inning.
With the two roundtrippers, the Bowling Green offense has now hit 12 homers in their last nine games.
For additional run support, the Hot Rods tacked on a pair of runs on a few two-out RBI singles in the eighth inning from outfielder Joshua Lowe and Sanchez.
Lowe, Sanchez, Tenerowicz and infielder Miles Mastrobuoni combined to have all the Hot Rods hits for the evening with two base knocks apiece.
Despite giving up two runs in the ninth inning, righty Reimin Ramos (S, 3) secured the save and Hot Rods win by getting Dragons outfielder Michael Beltre to groundout with the bases loaded to end the game.
With the victory, the Hot Rods have now won three straight games and snapped a four-game losing skid against Dayton. The soldout crowd was the Hot Rods second of the season and ranks among the top-five largest home crowds in the history of Bowling Green Ballpark.
The Hot Rods will try to continue their winning ways on Wednesday in Southcentral Kentucky with the second of three games against the Dayton Dragons.
Bowling Green will send lefty Greg Maisto to the mound while the Dragons will counter with lefty Scott Moss.
First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 PM.
You can also listen in to Play-by-Play Broadcaster Alex Cohen for all the games on www.williecountry.com (Click on BG Listen Live) or on AM 1340 and 97.1 Willie in Southcentral Kentucky.