HOME RUN DERBY/Hot Rods pummel Rome Braves, 10-1, force decisive Game Three

HOT RODS UNLOAD FOUR HOME RUNS, MOLINA SHINES ON THE HILL

The Bowling Green Hot Rods have had an impressive two-year run on Eighth Avenue, and Bowling Green Ballpark has certainly been good for the home team.

On Monday night, it was just what the doctor ordered.

After a tough 3-2 loss on Tuesday night, in Rome, Georgia, the Hot Rods returned home for Game Two of the South Atlantic League divisional series on Thursday evening in their own digs.

Yeah, you might say they were diggin’ it.

Beforehand, afterward, and certainly during the affair.

The Hot Rods unloaded four home runs, two of them tape-measure shots, and sturdy right-hander Anthony Molina delivered another quality start, sending Bowling Green to an impressive 10-1 victory over the Braves.

The decisive Game Three is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. on Friday night, with the winner to advance to the best-of-five South Atlantic League championship series.

“We knew coming into today that our backs were against the wall, but we knew what we had to do,” Hot Rods third baseman Tanner Murray told the Bowling Green Daily News. “I felt like we should have won the other day (at the Braves’ home field), but that’s baseball. We came out here, played the game we should have played and came out with the win.”

Murray was just one of the Hot Rods’ players who delivered when their season was on the line.

He delivered a solo home run to the opposite field, a homer that fell into the bullpen in the right-field corner, in the bottom of the first inning. Two batters later, Heriberto Hernandez, the Hot Rods’ cleanup hitter, delivered a two-run blast off Braves starter Luis De Avila, and the home team was on its way to victory.

Murray also had a sensational defensive play in the top of the sixth, robbing Rome’s Cal Conley of an extra-base hit with a leaping catch to retire the side.

Meanwhile, Hot Rods right-hander Anthony Molina was dealing, and he worked 5 2/3 strong innings, recording seven strikeouts while allowing one run on four hits.

The Braves’ Jacob Pearson, Rome’s leadoff man and left fielder, yanked a Molina pitch over the fence in left-center field for a solo home run in the sixth.

Hot Rods left-hander Patrick Wicklander took over after Molina’s 5 2/3 innings, and he shut down the Braves over his 2 1/3 innings on the hill, finishing with three strikeouts. Hot Rods manager Jeff Smith went with Haden Erbe for mop-up duty in the ninth, and Erbe battled out of a bases-loaded jam to complete the task at hand.

Hot Rods catcher Nate Soria went to the opposite field in the bottom of the second, sending a home run into the Braves’ bullpen in right field. In the fourth, leadoff man Mason Auer crushed a pitch for a two-run home run to left field, and the Hot Rods added three runs in the eighth to win going away.

The Hot Rods, who won the High A East League championship in dominant fashion last year, are armed for another title run. They’ve now gone 79-52 this season, including playoffs, heading into tonight’s Game Three.

Hot Rods manager Jeff Smith put it this way to the Daily News:

“That last game we had in Rome was a great baseball game. We came up on the wrong side, but it was a really good baseball game. To bounce back like that, you had the right guy on the mound in Molina. He’s been doing it all season, continues to do it. We came out and got some big hits in the first inning and kept it going all game.”

The Hot Rods have yet to lose a game this season in which Anthony Molina has been their starting pitcher.

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