RELIEVER ANTONIO MENENDEZ AFTER THE FINAL OUT.
HOT RODS TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS IN 5-3 VICTORY OVER ABERDEEN IRONBIRDS
They keep it affordable and know a thing or two about winning.
As a matter of fact, they DO win.
They win, they regroup, they go to work and then they start winning again.
It’s become a cycle for the Bowling Green Hot Rods, and it’s kind of like Dillon Paulsen hitting for the cycle on a hot, humid Fourth of July spectacle.
A couple months and change after the fact.
Paulsen, leadoff man Mason Auer and the rest of the Hot Rods are well on their way to another league championship.
WILL MAKE THE TAG ON ABERDEEN’S MAX WAGNER.
They’ll get two chances to pull off the feat over the course of the next 72 hours in Aberdeen, Maryland.
The Hot Rods played their last home game of the season on a pleasant Sunday afternoon at Bowling Green Ballpark, and before they recorded the final out, before the Hot Rods could take the critical Game One of the Class A South Atlantic League Championship Series, they reminded their fans about season ticket packages for the 2023 season, about how you can follow the team online, and on the radio.
(That’s Talk 104.1 FM and WKCT, 930-AM.)
IN THE BOTTOM OF THE EIGHTH INNING.
They reminded their fans that they’re appreciative of their support.
The Hot Rods struck first on Sunday, grabbing the lead, watching the Aberdeen IronBirds tie things up in the fifth inning and then taking the lead, for good, on Logan Driscoll’s clutch two-run single through the right side in the bottom of the eighth inning.
They couldn’t have written a better script, for intrigue, for drama, and certainly for finding the winning formula to win.
Hot Rods right-hander Antonio Menendez finished the task at hand, retiring the IronBirds in order in the bottom of the ninth, including a strikeout of Aberdeen DH Heston Kiersted to end the game.
Efficiently.
Hot Rods 5, IronBirds 3.
Now they’ll get two chances to claim their second championship in as many seasons, with Game Two of the series unfolding at 6:05 p.m. CDT on Wednesday Evening at Ripken Ballpark, the sparkling minor league facility in Aberdeen, Maryland, on the west side of Interstate 95, about 25 miles north of Baltimore.
The Hot Rods needed five games, in a best-of-five series, to win their “High A” Eastern League championship last year against the Greensboro Grasshoppers. They won that game at home, again in efficient fashion, building an early lead and relying on a sturdy bullpen to get things done.
You have to like their chances of doing it again, what with the savvy of Hot Rods manager Jeff Smith, a baseball lifer with an engaging personality and an everyman’s temperament.
The Hot Rods were on top of their game Sunday afternoon, and they never trailed against the visiting IronBirds.
DH Dillon Paulsen crushed a pitch from IronBirds starter Andrew Federman for a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning, staking the Hot Rods to a critical 2-0 lead. From there, it was pretty much a pitchers’ game, outside the wild pitch that scored the Hot Rods’ Tanner Murray from third base in the bottom of the fourth, extending the home team’s lead to 3-0.
There was a decent crowd on hand, perhaps more than last year’s Game Five against Greensboro, despite the fact that the Hot Rods were going up against the NFL, leisurely afternoons on the lake and the golf course and any number of weekend activities. And the crowd was totally engaged.
It was inevitable, perhaps, that the IronBirds would get back into it.
They did, in the top of the fifth. Hot Rods left-hander Patrick Wicklander, who battled out of a bases-loaded, no outs jam in the fourth, ran into trouble against the heart of the IronBirds lineup in the fifth.
Aberdeen’s Billy Cook delivered an RBI double to right field, trimming the IronBirds’ deficit to 3-1, and Jud Fabian followed with an impressive home run, a two-run shot to left-center field to tie the game.
Wicklander and the Hot Rods didn’t flinch. And in the eighth, in the bottom of the eighth, they put together a textbook rally to take the lead and turn it over to closer Antonio Menendez in the ninth.
IS ONE WIN AWAY FROM ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP.
Tanner Murray, the Hot Rods’ third baseman, lined a pitch from Aberdeen’s Daniel Lloyd into the right-field corner for a leadoff double. Man in scoring position, no outs.
Then Dillon Paulsen, the DH, coaxed a walk from Lloyd on four pitches, setting up a potential double play to potentially send the game into extra innings.
Not happenin’.
BRINGS ENTHUSIASM TO THE SEVENTH-INNING STRETCH.
Johan Lopez, the Hot Rods’ slick fielding shortstop, put down a perfect bunt on the left side of the infield. The sacrifice left TWO men in scoring position, with one out, to bring right fielder Logan Driscoll to the plate.
With the infield in, Driscoll slapped a Lloyd pitch through the right side of the infield, scoring both Murray and Paulsen while putting the Hot Rods in front 5-3.
THE HIT THAT PUT HIS TEAM IN FRONT FOR GOOD.
That was all Antonio Menendez needed.
Menendez retired the top of the IronBirds’ order, in order, and Hot Rods catcher Michael Berglend rushed to the mound to congratulate his teammate. A couple infielders did a leapin’ human bump. The outfielders converged quickly, and the bench emptied.
WAS ALL OVER THIS BUNT IN THE EIGHTH …
These guys are nothing if not efficient.
Jeff Smith and the Hot Rods finished the 2021 season with an 82-36 record, which is unheard of, at just about any level of professional baseball.
WERE QUICK TO SAVOR THE MOMENT.
That’s a .695 winning percentage.
Even the 1927 Yankees would be impressed.
It was more of the same this year. The Hot Rods have won 79 games, against 52 defeats, including the playoffs, and the IronBirds ain’t chopped liver, either, Hoss.
They’re checking in at 78 wins, and 55 defeats, and they’ll have good crowds on hand, Tuesday and possibly Wednesday as the Hot Rods close the door on yet another successful season.
“It’s gonna be tough,” Hot Rods manager Jeff Smith told the Bowling Green Daily News. “That’s a really good baseball team over there that we are playing there (in Aberdeen). They can really swing it. They play the game the right way. It’s really gonna be competitive on their grounds.
“We are going to have to really play tough.”
I don’t know about you, but I like their chances. A lot.
FROM THE SOUTH ATLANTIC LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP.