Hot Rods drop series finale to Rome
Published 9:28 am Monday, July 7, 2025
The Bowling Green Hot Rods’ ninth-inning rally fell short, with Rome holding on for the 8-6 win in Sunday’s series finale at Bowling Green Ballpark.
Rome built a five-run cushion with a grand slam in the top of the ninth, thwarting a late rally by the Hot Rods in the bottom of the inning, to salvage the final game of the series and deny BG a chance to make it four straight wins.
“Not the way we wanted to end the game,” BG manager Rafael Valenzuela said. “We have to be a little better there with the execution of pitches, but it happens. We move on and we get ready for Tuesday.”
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Bowling Green (43-36 overall, 9-6 second half) was looking to sweep the mini-three game homestand — holding a lead through five before Rome was able to build a late cushion and hold on.
Rome (35-44, 5-9) got a two-run homer from No. 9 hitter Harry Owens that the Hot Rods countered with a two-run homer from Mac Horvath in the bottom of the fourth — Horvath’s 13th home run of the season.
Bowling Green took a 3-2 lead with an unearned run in the fifth, but the lead was short-lived as Rome got two runs in the sixth — an RBI single from Jace Grady to tie it and an RBI single from Owens that gave the Emperors a 4-3 advantage.
Rome broke it open in the ninth — doubling its output with one swing, a grand slam from Mason Guerra that made the score 8-3.
The grand slam proved to be important as BG tried to rally. The first three batters reached, with Jhon Diaz’s RBI double cutting the deficit to four. A sacrifice fly by Adrian Santana and a wild pitch allowed two more runs to score, but the Hot Rods were unable to get the tying run to the plate before Ryan Bourassa closed it out for Rome.
Horvath, Emilien Pitre and Raudelis Martinez had two hits each for the Hot Rods.
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Garrett Edwards had a string of four straight starts pitching into the sixth snapped, going four innings. The right-hander allowed two runs and four hits with four strikeouts and two walks.
“He’s solid,” Valenzuela said. “This is my first time I’ve actually got my eyes on him and he’s as advertised. Made one mistake the whole outing. He wasn’t as sharp as he usually is, but he competed.”
The three-game homestand is part of a stretch where the Hot Rods play 21 out of 27 games on the road. Bowling Green is 7-5 nearly halfway through the stretch.
“You see it a lot with teams that win the first half, they kind of shut it down for the second half,” Valenzuela said. “I think we have done a good job of competing.”
Bowling Green heads back out on the road to open a six-game series at Greensboro at 5:30 p.m. CDT on Tuesday. Bowling Green gets three more home games with Greenville before closing out the stretch with six games at Asheville.
“It’s going to be tough to get another three games at home and then be on the road for (most of the month), but once we come back we will get a two-week homestand, which will be nice,” Valenzuela said.
The Hot Rods will get a brief reprieve from the tough stretch with four off days for the All-Star break following the Greensboro series.
Valenzuela said it will be a good reset before the Hot Rods begin the final stretch of the regular season.
“It is a 132-game season,” Valenzuela said. “Whenever you get a break and get to go home and relax and kind of not think about it for a little bit, it is nice. We can come back refreshed and finish about 40 plus games left. I am excited for that, excited for these guys to keep competing and see what happens.”
About Micheal Compton
I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.
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