The Bowling Green Hot Rods got their series against Lake County (Ohio) off to a roaring start with a 12-5 win Monday at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Bowling Green (6-6) used a bat-around first inning to seize control and cruised from there to improve to 3-1 on the current homestand and get back to .500 on the season.

“It was a really good game,” BG manager Reinaldo Ruiz said. “We knocked their starter out in the first … and we kept adding and adding and we got the win.”

Lake County (7-4) took the lead when Jose Fermin homered off the first pitch of the game from Easton McGee, but the Bowling Green offense had a huge answer in the bottom of the first.

The Hot Rods sent 11 men to the plate, scoring six times. Bowling Green chased Lake County starter Luis Oveido, who entered Monday yet to allow a run this season in 10 innings of work, after eight batters. Connor Hollis had an RBI double and Bryce Brown added an RBI single, but the big blow came off the bat of Chris Betts – a mammoth 405-foot, three-run homer that easily cleared the park in right field.

With a five-run cushion, McGee settled in from there to earn his first win as a Hot Rod. The Hopkinsville native allowed a two-run homer in the third and finished his night with five innings pitched, allowing three runs and four hits with five strikeouts and a walk.

“That’s a really big confidence booster, when the offense is doing that well,” McGee said. “That first pitch was not so good, but it happens. You just have to move on.

“Other than the two home runs I was very pleased how it went. My cutter was pretty good today. I just pitched off my fastball and tried to get ahead. I felt very good today.”

Bowling Green continued to add to the lead, scoring once in the second, three times in the seventh and capped the scoring with two runs in the eighth after Lake County had scored a pair of runs in the top of the eighth.

The Hot Rods finished with 13 hits and were 6-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

Betts finished with two hits and a career-high four RBIs, while Hollis had his first three-hit game of the season. Brown, Ford Proctor and Gabe Witherspoon also finished with two hits each. Bowling Green took advantage of four Lake County errors that led to four unearned runs.

“Every time they made a mistake, we were running hard,” Ruiz said. “We put some pressure on their defense and they made errors and we were able to take advantage of them.”

FAMILY AFFAIR

McGee had a small contingent of friends and family in the stands to watch him pitch at BG Ballpark, about an hour from his hometown, including his sister Emily Russell who got to see him pitch for the first time since high school.

“It was a lot of fun,” McGee said. “It’s really nice to have my family. They were very supportive.”

NOTES

Bowling Green improved to 4-0 in series openers. … McGee was the first BG starting pitcher to earn a win since Caleb Sampsen on April 7. … The sixth-run first was the Hot Rods’ biggest inning of the season.

UP NEXT

Bowling Green will continue the three-game series with Lake County at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Right-hander Alan Strong (0-0, 0.00) is scheduled to start for the Hot Rods. Strong threw five innings of one-hit baseball with seven strikeouts at Lake County on April 9.

Right-hander Raymond Burgos (2-0, 0.87) is scheduled to start for the Captains. Burgos earned the win in his last start against Bowling Green on Thursday, allowing one run and six hits in 5 1/3 innings.{&end}