Dragons knock off Hot Rods 6 to 5

Bowling Green, Ky. - The Dayton Dragons took the lead with two runs in the eighth inning and reliever Blaine Howell pitched out of a tough jam in the bottom of the ninth to preserve a 6-5 victory over the Bowling Green Hot Rods on Wednesday night. With the win, the Dragons broke the club record for most wins in a half as they improved to 45-20 in the second half. The 2007 Dragons won 44 games in the first half.

Trailing 5-4 in the top of the eighth, Dayton’s Tucker Barnhart singled to center field with one out to start the comeback rally. Barnhart went to second on a wild pitch and took third on Donald Lutz’s single to center. David Vidal was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Chris Berset grounded to first and Barnhart was forced at the plate for the second out. Juan Duran’s ground ball to third was fielded by Julio Cedeno, but Cedeno’s throw to second was wild and two runs scored to give the Dragons a 6-5 lead.

Bowling Green put the first two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth, but Howell notched back-to-back strikeouts and then got Mayo Acosta to fly out to right on an excellent running catch by Theo Bowe to end the game. Howell picked up his ninth save.

Bowling Green scored two runs in the second to take an early lead, but the Dragons answered with four runs in the fourth. With one out, Ronald Torreyes lined a single to left and scored on Tucker Barnhart’s double to right. Barnhart scored on Donald Lutz’s double to the gap in right-center to tie the game. One batter later, Chris Berset doubled in Lutz, and Berset scored on Juan Duran’s single to center to make it 4-2 Dragons.

Bowling Green battled back, scoring single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to tie the game, then taking the lead against Dragons reliever Daniel Wolford with a run in the seventh. It was the first run that Wolford had allowed since June 9 and ended his consecutive scoreless innings streak at 34.1, just seven and two-thirds innings short of the all-time Midwest League record.

The Dragons collected 11 hits. Torreyes, Barnhart, and Lutz each had two. It was Torreyes’ fourth straight multi-hit game as he raised his batting average to .360.

The Dragons, 20-5 over their last 25 games, also broke the club record for road victories in a season with their 37th of the year. With five games to play, the Dragons are 80-55 overall, just two wins short of the club record for full-season victories set in 2001.

The Dragons meet the Hot Rods in the second game of the three-game series on Thursday at 7:35 p.m. (WONE 980 AM). Daniel Corcino (11-6, 3.07) will start for Dayton against Bowling Green’s George Jensen (13-4, 4.35). The next home game is Saturday at 7:00 p.m. against Lansing at Fifth Third Field.