HOT RODS AT CAPTAINS

July 3, 7 p.m. Classic Park Hot Rods 4-7; Captains 7-4 Hot Rods — Adrian Navas (4-6, 7.55 ERA); Captains — Brady Aiken (1-8, 4.58) captainsbaseball.com; allsportscleveland. net

we felt like we were still in the game and didn’t want to fall further behind.”

Ben Krauth followed Miniard to the mound in the top of the fourth inning and gave up a two-run home run to second baseman Mike Brousseau to account for what turned out to the Hot Rods’ final runs.

Brosseau had last been seen pitching the bottom of the eighth inning in the nightcap of the previous day’s doubleheader He mixed effective knuckleballs with mid-80s fastballs to retire three of the four batters he faced in an 11-4 loss.

To his credit, Krauth settled down after surrendering the round tripper and blanked the Hot Rods over the next three frames.

The Captains mustered only four hits off Bowling Green starter Chris Pike (12, 3.43 ERA) and two relievers. Pike gave up one run on three hits in seven innings to earn the victory.

Day said he didn’t feel his team suffered a letdown after the doubleheader sweep.

“They pitched well. We didn’t. They hit well. We didn’t. They won. We lost,” Day said.

The Captains slipped to 7-4 in the second half. The Hot Rods improved to 4-7.