Hot Rods center fielder Carl Chester grabs a fly ball Wednesday, July 4, 2018, during a game against South Bend at Bowling Green Ballpark. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

The Bowling Green Hot Rods are making the most of the brief time they have at Bowling Green Ballpark.

In a stretch where Bowling Green plays 13 out of 15 games away from home, the Hot Rods opened up a two-game series with South Bend (Ind.) with a 5-2 win Wednesday.

With a season-high crowd of 5,988 looking on, Bowling Green (56-27 overall, 9-5 second half) improved to 29-10 at home this season – the best home record among all full-season minor league baseball affiliated teams. Corpus Christi in the Texas League is next with a 28-12 home record.

“A tough stretch is an understatement,” BG manager Craig Albernaz said. “We might as well have been on the road for 15. It’s not like it is a short trip from South Bend to here. It is what it is. I keep on telling the boys to control what you can control. They brought some good effort today and the crowd was outstanding. The crowd definitely gave us a boost and we needed it.”

South Bend (41-42, 7-7) jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Zach Davis in the third before Bowling Green answered one inning later.

The Hot Rods loaded the bases with one out, but Trey Hair struck out for the second out. Devin Davis followed with a three-run double into the left-field corner that pushed BG in front 3-1.

“I knew from the first at-bat they were trying to go in and then they started going away a little bit,” Davis said. “I thought they would most likely be coming with a lot of off-speed (pitches) because usually my second and third at-bats I usually get a lot of off-speed pitches.

“I came up in the box and sat off-speed and got lucky and got that base hit.”

The Hot Rods made it 4-1 on a two-out RBI single by Eleardo Cabrera in the seventh.

South Bend got a run in the top of the eighth to cut the deficit to two before Vidal Brujan capped the scoring with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning.

Josh Fleming earned the win to improve to 6-1, with Jose Disla tossing a perfect ninth to earn his second save of the season.

Bowling Green finished with seven hits, including two by Brujan.

OLD RELIABLE

Fleming continued his run of good work with another quality start Wednesday.

Fleming worked seven innings, allowing one run and four hits with four strikeouts and a walk. It was his eighth quality outing in his last nine starts. The only non-quality start was May 31 at Fort Wayne, when Fleming worked three innings before the game was suspended due to rain.

It was the fourth time in the last five starts that Fleming has gone at least seven innings.

“He wants the ball,” Albernaz said. “He competes. He battles. In high-leverage situations, he doesn’t get rattled. He sticks with his stuff and pounds the zone. It’s been fun to watch. Hopefully, he keeps this going.”

UP NEXT

The series concludes at 6:35 p.m. Thursday.

Right-hander Alex Valverde (5-3, 4.41) is scheduled to start for the Hot Rods. Valverde earned the win in his last start at West Michigan on Friday, allowing two runs and four hits in six innings of work. He has yet to face South Bend this season.

Right-hander Rollie Lacy (3-1, 2.17) is scheduled to start for South Bend. Lacy is 3-0 over his last five starts, allowing four earned runs in 28 innings. He has yet to face the Hot Rods this season.