A night after they saw their four-game winning streak come to an end, the Hoptown Hoppers did not take long to get things back on the right track. Hoptown got a big pitching performance from Tyler McLaren as the Hoppers picked up an 8-2 road win at Paducah.
The Hoppers got on the board early. Alex Gonzales led off the night with a single. Two outs later, he scored on a base hit from Jojo Cruz to take a 1-0 lead just a half-inning into the game.
The score would stay that way until the top of the 4th. The Hoppers would add a run when Zayd Brannigan singled, stole a base, and then scored on a hit from Tanner Holliman to extend the lead to 2-0.
The Chiefs then ran into pitching troubles in the top of the 5th inning and the Hoppers took full advantage. Paducah pitcher Trey Schultz gave up five walks in his only inning of work, one of them with the bases loaded, and the Hoppers added two more by a base hit and a sacrifice fly, as the Hoptown lead grew to 5-0.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Hopper pitcher Tyler McLaren found his “groove.” At one point, he retired 14 straight Chiefs as he kept the Paducah bats in check.
The Chiefs finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh. Paducah took advantage of an error, two hits, and a wild pitch to plate two runs and cut the Hopper lead to 5-2. But that would be as close as the Chiefs would get.
The Hoppers would close out the win by tacking on three more runs in the top of the 9th. Jake Parr and Jojo Cruz each drove in a run during the game-sealing rally.
McLaren ended up pitching seven innings, giving up two runs, neither of them earned, on six hits, striking out eight, while walking only one.
Alex Gonzales, Jojo Cruz, and Tanner Holliman, all had two hits for the Hoppers. Cruz and Holliman added two RBIs apiece.
