Bowling Green Hot Rods left fielder Ryan Spikes (13) sprints to first in the Hot Rods’ 3-2 loss to the Hickory Crawdads at the Bowling Green Ballpark on Thursday, July 11, 2024. (Grace Ramey McDowell/grace.ramey@bgdailynews.com)

Yoniel Curet tied his career-high with 11 strikeouts as the Bowling Green Hot Rods dropped the series finale to the Greenville Drive in extra innings by a score of 6-5 on Sunday at Fluor Field in Greenville, South Carolina.

Bowling Green (50-39 overall, 14-9 second half) struck first in the top of the second inning against Greenville starter David Sandlin. Hunter Haas collected a one-out hit and Ryan Spikes singled to center, and an error by Jhostynxon Garcia in center field brought Haas home to score, giving the Hot Rods a 1-0 lead.

Two more runs came around to score for the Hot Rods against Sandlin in the top of the third. Cooper Kinney led off with a double and Colton Ledbetter singled and stole second to put runners at second and third. Ryan Cermak doubled both runners home to give Bowling Green a 3-0 lead.

Greenville (40-50, 14-10) fought back in the bottom of the third with two runs against Yoniel Curet. Byran Gonzalez reached on an error by Haas to lead off the inning. Mikey Romero doubled to center to score Gonzalez. Miguel Bleis singled in the next at-bat, plating Romero, cutting the Bowling Green lead to 3-2. The Drive tied the game in the bottom of the fifth against Curet on a solo homer from Mikey Romer, evening the game at 3-3.

The Drive took their first lead of the game in the bottom of the seventh against Hot Rods reliever Sean Harney. Mikey Romero led off the inning with a solo homer, making it 4-3 Greenville.

Tre’ Morgan battled back in the top of the ninth, hitting a solo home run of his own to tie the game 4-4 and force extra innings. 

Bowling Green took advantage of their extra-innings runner in the top of the 10th. Cermak was the placed runner at second and came home to score on a two-out single by Ryan Spikes, giving the Hot Rods a 5-4 lead.

Greenville answered in the bottom of the 10th on a walk-off, two-run home run from Ronald Rosario in a 6-5 win for Greenville. 

Reidis Sena (4-4) picked up the win, tossing two innings, surrendering two runs (one earned) on three hits with one walk and one strikeout. Jonny Cuevas (4-2) was given the loss, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits.

The Hot Rods enjoy an off day Monday before returning to Bowling Green Ballpark for a six-game series with the Winston-Salem Dash, starting at 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday.