Bowling Green again pummels Drive

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The Bowling Green Hot Rods used a five-home run night, including two solo shots from Ryan McCoy and a three-run blast from Connor Hujsak, to power past the Greenville Drive, 10-4, on Wednesday night at Fluor Field.

Bowling Green (24-11) collected 11 hits and scored eight of its 10 runs via the home run, taking control early before holding off Greenville’s middle-inning push. The Drive (14-21) finished with 10 hits of their own, including multi-hit nights from Justin Gonzales, Henry Godbout and Mason White, but went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.

The Hot Rods opened the scoring in the second inning after Marshall Toole was hit by a pitch, stole second and came around on a Tom Poole single to right field. Gonzales kept the inning from growing further, cutting down Poole at second base from right field as Yoeilin Cespedes applied the tag.

Theo Gillen stretched the lead to 2-0 in the third, driving a solo homer to right field off Austin Ehrlicher on a 1-0 pitch. Ehrlicher exited later in the inning with two aboard, and Brandon Neely worked out of the jam by getting Toole to strike out before Poole grounded into a force out.

Bowling Green broke the game open in the fourth. McCoy drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a groundout and scored on Gillen’s single to left-center. After Gillen stole second and Émilien Pitre walked, Hujsak drove a 1-1 pitch out to right-center field for a three-run homer, pushing the Hot Rods ahead 6-0.

Greenville answered in the bottom half when Jack Winnay walked with one out and scored on Freili Encarnacion’s double to center field, cutting the deficit to 6-1.

The Hot Rods continued to add on with two-out power. McCoy hit his first homer of the night in the fifth, a solo shot to left field, and later added another solo homer to center in the seventh. Poole capped Bowling Green’s scoring in the ninth with a two-run homer to right field after Toole singled, giving the Hot Rods a 10-3 lead.

The Drive’s biggest push came in the sixth. Winnay led off the scoring in the inning with a solo homer to left field, his third of the season. White followed with his first triple of the year, driving a ball to right field, and scored two batters later when Natanael Yuten singled through the right side against Dominic Niman. The two-run frame brought Greenville within 7-3.

Godbout singled in the seventh, but Niman struck out the next three batters to strand him at first. Niman finished with four strikeouts over 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Jose Urbina.