Hot Rods power past Rome in home opener

Published 10:50 pm Tuesday, April 8, 2025

By Micheal Compton

The cold weather couldn’t stop the red-hot Bowling Green Hot Rods bats, with BG powering past Rome 10-3 on Tuesday at Bowling Green Ballpark.

Playing its home opener, Bowling Green (3-1) spotted the Emperors an early lead before exploding for 10 unanswered runs. Noah Myers and Tony Santa Maria led the way, with both homering for the second straight game.

“It’s nice to come home and get that first win, kind of get that monkey off our shoulder,” BG manager Rafael Valenzuela said. “Myers and Santa Maria have been swinging it well and it’s nice to see.”

Email newsletter signup

Rome (1-3) opened the scoring, jumping on BG starter Santiago Suarez for three runs in the second. Titus Dumitru delivered an RBI double and scored on a two-run homer from Ambioris Tavarez to give Rome the early edge.

Suarez settled in from there, working into the fourth before turning it over to the bullpen. The No. 9 prospect in the Tampa Bay Rays system finished the night allowing three runs and three hits in 3⅓ innings with two walks and five strikeouts, retiring six of the final eight batters he faced.

“He’s a young guy,” Valenzuela said. “He’s 20. I’m pretty sure he was amped up being the home opener. He did a nice job. He picked up the tempo after that inning where he gave up three. He did a nice job of getting ahead of the hitters and putting them away.”

The Hot Rods answered with a run in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Daniel Vellojin before taking the lead one inning later on a three-run home run from Myers — an opposite-field shot that just cleared the wall in right under the scoreboard to give BG a 4-3 advantage.

“He threw a breaking ball down and away to start,” Myers said. “It was a good hitting count and I was looking fastball. I got it and wasn’t sure it was going to go, but I hit it pretty good and was able to sneak it out to start a little rally for us. So it was good.”

Santa Maria’s two-run double in the fifth extended the lead to 6-3. Two innings later, Santa Maria connected on a three-run shot to left to break the game open.

Myers added an RBI infield single to cap the scoring. He finished 4-for-4 with a walk and four runs scored and is now 7-for-8 with two homers and eight RBIs over his last two games.

Santa Maria had two hits and drove in five to make it two homers and eight RBIs over the last two games.

The Hot Rods finished with 14 hits with Adrian Santana, Aidan Smith and Mac Horvath joining Myers and Santa Maria with multi-hit games.

“One through nine in the lineup, I think we have a chance to produce runs every day,” Myers said. “Whether it is one through nine or the guys that had off today, it doesn’t matter. You can replace the parts and still do that a lot of different days a week.”

Chris Villaman earned the win, tossing 2⅔ innings of scoreless relief.

The six-game series is scheduled to continue at 6:35 p.m. on Wednesday.

EARLY EXIT

Reliever Adam Boucher left the game after one inning on Tuesday. Boucher tossed a scoreless seventh and came out to work the eighth, but was visited by Valenzuela and a trainer while warming up prior to the inning.

“He had a little bit of a tough go,” Valenzuela said. “He couldn’t feel his fingers. It might have been the weather, but I am not too worried about it. I don’t think it’s anything too serious. It’s probably the weather.

“We want to err on the side of caution. That way he can go see our trainer today and see how he comes through it tomorrow.”

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

email author More by Micheal

More Sports

Rardin notches 100th win at WKU in Liberty sweep

MTSU claims series sweep over WKU with walk-off win

Smith pitches WKU to 2-1 win against Blue Raiders

No. 25 Hilltoppers down Liberty 4-2 to clinch series win

Print Article