The Bowling Green Hot Rods rode a potent offensive attack to an 8-4 win over Dayton (Ohio) on Friday at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Bowling Green (2-0) pounded out 11 hits, building an early cushion and holding off a late charge from the Dragons.

“The boys came ready to play,” Bowling Green manager Craig Albernaz said. “They were aggressive swinging the bats. They worked to get some good pitches to hit and they barreled them up. Sometimes we get a little too aggressive to a fault, but that’s OK. We wanted to stay aggressive and swing the bats well.”

After scoring the final three runs in the final two innings in a 5-4 walk-off win in Thursday’s opener, Bowling Green’s offense picked up where it left off Friday – building a 5-0 lead after four.

Taylor Walls started the scoring with a solo homer to first. One inning later, Devin Davis added a sacrifice fly to extend the advantage to 2-0.

The Hot Rods added three more runs in the fourth – stringing together four straight hits that including a solo homer from Zac Law and an RBI single by Davis.

Dayton (0-2) chipped away with single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh but the Hot Rods answered with three in the bottom of the seventh – including RBI singles from Vidal Brujan and Zach Rutherford.

“Every time you score late in the game and tack on to the lead you already have it’s going to be a turning point in the game,” Albernaz said. “We scored five runs early, but I wouldn’t say we were comfortable with that at all with the way they swing the bats over there. They have some guys that can really swing it so we wanted to give our pitching staff some breathing room if we can. It worked out tonight. Hopefully we can keep it going.”

The Dragons got a solo homer from Stuart Fairchild in the eighth, but were unable to get any closer.

Austin Franklin earned the win, allowing one run and two hits in five innings.

“He threw the ball well,” Albernaz said. “He featured a change-up and got the curveball over. His fastball had some good ride in the zone. It was good to get five innings in his first start.”

Hernandez paced the offense with three hits, while Rutherford added two hits.

2 AND 0

This is the fifth time the Hot Rods have opened the season 2-0. Bowling Green has never started 3-0.

EARLY POWER

With two home runs Friday to go with a home run in Thursday’s season opener, the Hot Rods homered in both games to start the season for the second time in franchise history – joining the 2011 Hot Rods who also hit three homers in the first two games.

UP NEXT

Dayton and Bowling Green will continue play with two games in Dayton with the first game scheduled for 6 p.m. CDT on Saturday.

Right-hander Tobias Myers is scheduled to start for Bowling Green. Acquired in the trade for Tim Beckham, Myers is rated as the No. 15 prospect in the Tampa Bay Rays system, according to Baseball America.

Right-hander Tyler Mondile is scheduled to start for Dayton.{&end}