Roberto Caro cracks a single for South Bend Thursday night. (Photo by Emma Reese)

SOUTH BEND – The South Bend Cubs played arguably their best game against the Bowling Green Hot Rods on Thursday night as they tallied 8 runs on 17 hits, five of which were extra-base hits, in order to take the final game of the series from the Hot Rods 8-5.

Thanks to the Great Lakes Loons’ late game comeback over the Eastern Division leading West Michigan Whitecaps, the Cubs are now three games out of first place with 10 games remaining before the All-Star Break.

FIRST SIX INNINGS: Cubs starting pitcher, Manuel Rondon worked out of a first inning jam that saw runners on first and third base with two outs to keep the ballgame scoreless heading into the second.

In the second inning, Rondon allowed a leadoff single, which was followed by a fielding error, a groundout to move the runners over, and a sacrifice fly to give Bowling Green the first lead in each of the last three games.

But like the night before, South Bend retaliated in the bottom of the second with Isaac Paredes’ solo-shot to left field to tie the game 1-1.

From there Rondon worked through the next two innings to keep the Hot Rods from scoring while the Cubs offense backed his efforts with three runs in the fourth inning. Yeiler Peguero, Alberto Mineo, and Isaac Paredes all singled before Kevonte Mitchell doubled to give South Bend a 4-1 lead.

Rondon was then pulled with one out in the fifth after Nathaniel Lowe grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Lucius Fox and cut South Bend’s lead in half. Jared Check, who came to relieve Rondon, then threw a wild pitch that allowed Josh Lowe to score making it a 4-3 ballgame.

The Hot Rods proceeded to tie the game 4-4 on Rene Pinto’s line drive single to centerfield.

The game remained tied as Chad Hockin came in to take over for Jared Cheek in the seventh inning. Hockin would then go on to induce a double play and a ground out to work around a single and a stolen base in the top of the seventh inning.

Fuelled by the last two shutout innings coming from the South Bend pitching staff, the Cubs broke the tie in the seventh inning with a series of hits including two key doubles to give the take an 8-4 lead.

Dakota Mekkes then came in and dominated the final one and two thirds innings while striking out every hitter he faced to shut the door and pick up the save to insure the Cubs the final victory of the series.

SOUTH BEND’s BIG INNING: The Cubs took Bowling Green reliever, Spencer Moran for four runs in the top of the seventh to take an 8-4 lead. Starting with Kevonte Mitchell’s leadoff triple in the bottom of the frame, Jhonny Pereda kept the excitement on the Cubs side by hitting a RBI-double to break the tie.

From there the Cubs blew the game wide open as South Bend batted around the lineup to tally four runs in the seventh. Getting the job done after Pereda was Luis Ayala and Yeiler Perguero who both singled before Alberto Mineo added a double of his own to make it an 8-4 ballgame.

HOT RODS IMPRESSIVE OFFENSE: Coming into tonight’s game Bowling Green was hitting .333 with an on-base percentage of .413 in 219 at-bats against the South Bend Cubs. Led by Rene Pinto, who is hitting .600 against the Cubs in 15 at-bats, the Hot Rods have nine hitters currently hitting over .300 in six games played between the two teams.

By comparison, the Tampa Bay Rays’ Midwest League affiliate has a .262 team average throughout 57 games while none of their hitters are hitting over .300 overall.

MEKKES’ INSANE STATS: Coming into the game, Mekkes held a 0.61 ERA over 29 and 1/3 innings pitched in 17 appearances. As the Cubs’ best bullpen arm, the 6-foot-7 righty is now tied with Wyatt Short with four saves.

One of Mekkes’ most impressive feats came in tonight’s relief appearance. After coming in for Hockin with one out in the eighth, Mekkes struck out the final five hitters to end the game.

The Michigan State alum has now collected 47 strikeouts in just 31 innings pitched, which totals nearly 14 strikeouts per game when averaged over nine innings. Likewise, his ERA has only improved with time. In April his ERA was 0.68. In May he dropped to a 0.63 ERA. Not to mention, Mekkes has not allowed a run in three appearances in the month of June.