Hot Rods Game Notes, SAL Championship Game 1
September 18, 2022 – South Atlantic League (SAL) – Bowling Green Hot Rods News Release
This afternoon’s game will be the lone contest played in Bowling Green before the two clubs head to Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, Maryland to close out the best-of-three championship series.
Home Run Hot Rods… With seven home runs in the final two games of the SAL Division Series, the Hot Rods return to the Championship Series for the third time in four years with a 7-1 win over the Rome Braves. Johan Lopez had the first multi-homer game in the postseason for the Hot Rods and Dillon Paulson hit a grand slam to break the game open in the fourth as part of a record-tying three-hit night. The pitching was excellent too, with Ben Peoples earning a win in his postseason debut, tossing 5.1 innings with six strikeouts and a run on five hits. Austin Vernon struck out five of six batters he faced in 1.2 innings. Evan Reifert and Conor Dryer each struck out one in 1.0 inning.
Friday’s Notes… Lopez is the first Hot Rods player with multiple home runs in a playoff game… He has multiple hits in every playoff game so far… Paulson and Ovalles tied Bowling Green’s playoff record with three hits in the game… All five outs recorded by Vernon were strikeouts… His five Ks were the most by a Hot Rods reliever in the postseason this year… With one more walk, Hernandez will set the record for the most in a postseason by a Hot Rods batter… He broke the playoff single-game record for walks with three on Friday… Lopez needs two more hits to break the postseason record of eight.
First Half Champs for the Championship… The First Half Division Champions in both the North and South will battle for the South Atlantic League Championship. This is Bowling Green’s second consecutive trip to their league championship series, winning the Midwest League in 2018 and the South Atlantic League Crown in 2021. BG has reached their league championship game in three of the past four years. Aberdeen is looking for their first full-season championship in their second year in full-season ball. Previously a member of the short-season New York Penn League, Aberdeen last won a league championship in 1983, then called the Utica Blue Sox.
Defending Champs… Jeff Smith led the Hot Rods to their second-ever league title in 2021, and has them back in the postseason in 2022. It’s the sixth-straight season the Hot Rods have reached postseason play, skippered by Smith (2X), Craig Albernaz (1X, 2018), and Reinaldo Ruiz (3X, 2016, 2017, 2019) in this stretch.
Clinched!… BG finished the first half leading their division for the third time in club history, clinching a playoff spot with 2018’s Midwest League Champions and again in 2011. (there were no halves in 2021). The 2011 team finished the first leg of the season with a 41-29 record while the 2018 Hot Rods set a franchise record with 47 wins in the first half and a record of 47-22. The 2022 club became the third Hot Rods team to the 40-win mark in a half.
Records Broken… The Hot Rods had an historic season, with multiple single-season records broken in 2022. Heriberto Hernandez passed Jordan Qsar (2021) for the team’s single-season home run record with his 24th early in the final home series of the regular season. Hernandez passed 2011 Hot Rods lefty Philip Wunderlich for the team RBI record of 86 with three RBIs in Bowling Green’s final game of the regular season, putting his new record at 89. Hernandez also owns the franchise strikeout record, previously held by Josh Lowe (2017, 144). Anthony Molina tied the franchise win record of 13 in his last regular season start, set by George Jensen (2011).
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