Hub City finally got off the skid last night with a walkoff in extra innings. They looked to build off that with another win in the series finale on Sunday afternoon to take some momentum into the all star break.
DJ McCarty (2-4, 5.96 ERA) got the start opposite right hander Jacob Kisting (4-0, 1.85), who was making his second start of the series after going four scoreless in the opener.
DJ did not have a clean first inning, surrendering a leadoff double to Narciso Polanco, but he left him on by retiring the next three in order. The second inning started with a solo homer shot on a line into the home bullpen in right from Carlos Colmenarez, but McCarty settled in from there, retiring the next six batters he faced, including striking out the side in the top of the third.
On the other side, Kisting was phenomenal, retiring each of the first twelve batters he faced, half of which came via a strikeout. That lack of run support bit McCarty in the fourth inning.
With one out, former Upstate Spartan Noah Myers was walked and Colmenarez was beaned in the knee. Jhon Diaz followed that with an RBI double to right and Larry Martinez added on with a sacrifice fly to right. McCarty rang up Jose Perez to retire the side, leaving Diaz on third with Hub City trailing 3-0.
McCarty exited after five complete, having given up three earned on four hits with one walk and six strikeouts. He gave way to Cole Roland, who worked a clean frame. On the other side of things, Kisting’s perfect game continued into the sixth until Carter Garate broke it up with a one out seeing eye single through the four hole. A wild pitch moved him into scoring position, but Arturo De Freitas grounded to short and Hector Osorio flew to right to leave him on.
Bowling Green added to their lead in the top of the seventh when Perez led off with a double. With one away, Polanco singled into center to make it 4-0, but that was all the damage as Polanco was later doubled off on a line drive to short from Connor Hujsak.
Hub City mounted a threat with two away in the bottom of the seventh. It started when Luke Hanson drew a leadoff walk. With two out, Antonis Macias reached on an infield single to Kisting that subsequently ended his day. Noah Beal came on to relieve him, and after a double steal, Quincy Scott II was rung up on a check swing to leave them on.
Owen Proksch and Jesús Gamez pitched the final two innings for the Burgers. Proksch worked a clean frame with a strikeout, pop up to short, and a grounder to second. Gamez worked around a one out single from Larry Martinez, otherwise striking out the side in a scoreless frame.
The bottom of the ninth got off to a promising start with a walk to Hector Osorio followed by a Hanson double to left. Gleider Figuereo would later load the bases with a one out walk, bringing the tying run to the plate in Antonis Macias. However, he struck out swinging on three pitches and Scott ended it anticlimactically with a fly ball to center.
With the 4-0 shutout, Hub City enters the all star break at 6-15 in the second half and 40-47 overall. After a much-needed four days off, Hub City will resume with a three-game set with the Greensboro Grasshoppers on Friday. First pitch is set for 7:05 PM.
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