[dropcap]B[/dropcap]owling Green’s pitching staff held firm Tuesday night to give the West Michigan Whitecaps their first loss of their current road trip. The Hot Rods finished out the game for the 3-1 victory.
West Michigan (11-7, 52-36) opened the road trip with a three-game sweep over Fort Wayne, but was hitless with runners in scoring position as Jake Faria led Bowling Green (6-12, 38-49) to the series-opener win. Faria (5-4) had an outstanding outing for the Hot Rods, striking out seven without issuing a walk and giving up just one run over six innings. The 20-year old right-hander gave up seven hits, but managed to hold runners at bay.
The ‘Caps were o-for-7 with runners in scoring position, with their sole run coming off a home run by Javier Betancourt in the top of the third. The homer, Betancourt’s fourth of the year, cut the deficit to 2-1, but the Whitecaps failed to crack the scoreboard again despite knocking on home’s door many times.
Faria put away eight batters straight before Dominic Ficociello and Wynton Bernard singled in the sixth to put runners at first and second with one out. Jeff Holm followed with a hard-hit ball up the middle, but after it skipped off the mound, second-baseman Kean Wong made a back-handed throw for a force-out at second. The play forced Ficociello to stop at third and the inning ended moments later when Willy Adames drilled a liner directly to left field.
The score remained 2-1 until the eighth inning. An RBI-double by Pat Blair put the Hot Rods up 3-1. In the final frame, Hot Rods’ closer Colton Reavis (5) worked around a leadoff walk and induced a game-ending double play.
Kevin Ziomek (7-6) had his four-game winning streak snapped in the loss. After allowing seven hits for five innings, he allowed two runs which crossed the plate in the second inning on a sacrifice fly and a two-out infield single. Ziomek struck out five without issuing a walk.
West Michigan registered nine hits despite scoring just once. Betancourt went 2-for-4 with the homer, while Ficoceillo was 3-for-4 to increase his league-leading total to 106. Bernard was also 2-for-4.
The ‘Caps continue their 10-game road trip tonight at 8:05 p.m. ET against Bowling Green. Chad Green (2-3, 3.66 ERA) is slated to start for the Whitecaps against LHP Bruedlin Suero (1-1, 3.07 ERA).
