Down but not out, the Bowling Green Hot Rods found a way to rally late and inch closer to the Midwest League Eastern Division first-half title.

Taylor Walls worked an 11-pitch at-bat to deliver a walk-off RBI single as Bowling Green earned a split with Fort Wayne (Ind.), winning 4-3 on Wednesday at Bowling Green Ballpark.

The win came after a 4-3 loss in the first game, a completion of a suspended game last month in Fort Wayne, when the TinCaps rallied to take the victory.

Wednesday’s win, and a Lansing (Mich.) loss, dropped Bowling Green’s magic number to clinch the division to one with four games left in the first half.

“That at-bat by Taylor Walls, I was telling him after the game that is probably the best at-bat I have seen in professional baseball as far as the timing of the game and what was at stake,” BG manager Craig Albernaz said. “He started 0-2 and to foul off those pitches and work it like that, that was really impressive.

“That’s what these guys do. Every day they bring it. We are never out of a game.”

Walls’ late heroics came after Bowling Green (43-22) jumped ahead early only to have Fort Wayne take the lead in the middle innings.

Walls and Zach Rutherford gave the Hot Rods a 2-0 lead after back-to-back homers in the first inning, but Fort Wayne (29-36) answered with single runs in the second and fourth to tie it before taking the lead on a single by Esteury Ruiz and a throwing error by BG pitcher Alex Valverde.

Carl Chester tied the score in the sixth with a two-out RBI double to set the stage for Walls in the seventh.

With runners at first and second and two outs, Walls started 0-2 before battling back to eventually work the count to 3-2 before lining a solid single to left on pitch 11 that scored the game-winning run.

“They’ve been working me away the whole series,” Walls said. “I knew they were going to go hard away. The first pitch had a little more movement than I expected. I knew they were going to try and pound fastballs. They didn’t want to put me on and load the bases and have a chance for the wild pitch or something. I don’t know how many pitches I saw, but I think all but one or two of them were fastballs. It gets me the timing I want to get a swing when I see that many fastballs.”

Walls finished with three hits in game two, while Rutherford scored two runs.

Mikey York earned the win in relief, allowing one hit with one walk in 2 1/3 innings. Bowling Green pitchers held Fort Wayne to 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

“That goes back to our bend, not break, mentality,” Albernaz said. “Valverde battled through and Mikey York did a great job of coming out of the pen and keeping them at bay.”

In the completion of the suspended game from May 31, Bowling Green got an RBI double from Rutherford in the fifth and an RBI double from Devin Davis in the sixth to take a 3-1 lead.

Fort Wayne surged in front in the bottom of the inning, with five of the first six batters reaching on singles to tie the score and an error by Adrian Rondon allowing the go-ahead run to score.

“They just got a bunch of singles in a row and that’s tough to do,” Albernaz said. “Credit to them, they put together good at-bats and made some good swings. It is what it is. We didn’t walk anybody in that situation, they just put the bat on the ball and they beat us.”

The Hot Rods were unable to answer, going in order in the seventh.

Vidal Brujan finished with three hits in the suspended game, while Davis added two hits.

SIMPLY THE BEST

The Hot Rods entered Wednesday’s game with a .667 winning percentage, the best of any team in minor league baseball.

Stockton (Calif.) in the California League entered the day second with a .631 winning percentage, with Kannapolis (N.C.) in the South Atlantic League third with a .629 winning percentage.

UP NEXT

The series concludes at 6:35 p.m. Thursday, the Hot Rods’ final home game in the first half.

Right-hander Riley O’Brien (3-1, 2.34) is scheduled to start for Bowling Green. O’Brien will be making his fifth start since joining the rotation May 19. As a starter, he is 2-1 with a 2.84 ERA, striking out 25 in 19 innings. He allowed one unearned run in two innings of work in his only appearance against Fort Wayne on April 13.

Left-hander Osvaldo Hernandez (4-2, 2.29) is scheduled to start for the TinCaps. Hernandez has won his last two starts and is 4-0 in his last eight starts. His last loss came to the Hot Rods on April 15 at Bowling Green Ballpark, when Hernandez allowed four runs – three earned – and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings.{&end}