By Steve Gunn
LocalSportsJournal.com

An unusual pair of fielding miscues hurt the West Michigan Whitecaps in their 7-3 loss to the Bowling Green Hot Rods on Saturday in Bowling Green, Kentucky.LSJ Logo incert

West Michigan’s Will Maddox opened the scoring in the third inning with an RBI single, but the Hot Rods quickly gained the lead with a pair of runs scored on a base hit by David Olmedo-Barrera, combined with a throwing error from catcher Arvicent Perez, gave them a 2-1 edge.whitecaps logo not for feature art

With the ‘Caps trailing 3-2 with two outs in the eighth, Will Allen launched a game-tying solo home run on a 3-2 pitch to knot the game.

But the Hot Rods rallied again in the eighth inning, with two outs.

Olmedo-Barrera reached with a bunt single. Brett Sullivan then chopped a ground ball to shortstop David Gonzalez, whose throw to first popped off the top of Maddox’ glove at first base to continue the inning.

Bowling Green took advantage with a go-ahead two-run single by Kewby Meyer and two-run double from Mike Russell to take a 7-3 lead. The two Whitecaps errors led to five of the seven Bowling Green runs.

Jose Zambrano led the Whitecaps offense, going 3-for-4 and scoring two runs.

The Whitecaps fell to 59-48 overall and 20-20 in the second-half standings. They are 7 ½ games behind first place Bowling Green in Midwest League’s Eastern Division.