The Bowling Green Hot Rods increased their season-long win streak to seven games with a 5-0 win over the Great Lake Loons on Saturday night at Bowling Green Ballpark.
On the pitching side, the Hot Rods got another dominant start from knuckleballer Chris Pike (W, 2-2). Pike tossed five scoreless innings and has given up just one run in his last two starts combined, spanning 12 innings.
To secure the win for Pike and the Hot Rods, righty Deivy Mendez came in and threw a season-high 3.1 innings, giving up just two runs in the ninth inning. Righty Joe Serrapica (S, 2) finished the game by getting Loons infielder Jared Walker to ground into a game-ending double play.
Offensively, the Hot Rods got a solo homer from outfielder Garrett Whitley in the fourth inning to score the first run of the game and then added a three-run homer from first basemen Bobby Melley in the sixth inning to make the score 4-0.
The homer for Whitley was his second in his last three games and already his third roundtripper in the month of July.
For Melley, the homer was his first of the season for the Hot Rods. He now has 5 RBI in the first two games this series.
Bowling Green got its final run in the seventh inning on a RBI single from outfielder Jesus Sanchez. The single marked another multi-hit game for Sanchez, who is hitting .467 (14-for-30) in the month of July.
With the win, the Hot Rods have now won the first five games of their week-long homestand and have won seven straight games, their longest win streak of the season. It is the longest win streak for the Hot Rods since they won nine straight games on two separate occasions in July last season.
They are now three-games over .500 (10-7) for the first time in the second half.
The Hot Rods will try to continue their winning ways on Sunday in Southcentral Kentucky with the second of four games against the Great Lakes Loons.
Bowling Green will send righty Adrian Navas mound while the Loons will counter with righty Jordan Sheffield.
First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 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.