Playoff-bound Hot Rods host annual youth camp

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – School’s out for the summer, and what better way to spend a sunny Friday afternoon than with the defending South Atlantic League champions? The Bowling Green Hot Rods concluded their annual youth baseball camp where members of the team refined the basic skills for those in attendance, laying the blueprint for future success in the sport.

Along the way, lifelong fans were created for one Hot Rods hurler, who saw a late arrival turn into a camp-wide rally cry.

“The reason it started is because Gary [Gill Hill] came in and, for some reason, one of the players started a chant, ‘Gary’,” said youth camper Maddox Stamps. “Go Gary!”

“Yeah, I guess it just started today,” said Hot Rods RHP Gary Gill Hill. “I actually showed up late and then they all got them to cheer my name. I thought it was fun getting to hang out with all these guys, all these kids. It was a fun time. I would do it again, honestly.”

Getting the chance to hang out with the pros not only grew the kids’ baseball abilities, but it also produced some unforgettable memories, and in the words of a couple campers, was a ‘really cool experience.’

“It’s a really cool experience getting to even just a walk on the nicely groomed field,” said youth camper Jacob Pennington.

“It’s really cool seeing the guys that are future big leaguers and just being able to talk to them because most of them are pretty cool people,” said youth camper Andrew Pennington.

While the Hot Rods that worked the camp are fresh off a playoff clinching first half, their eyes are still on the prize for postseason caliber baseball through the final few months of the schedule.

“Obviously we had a good first half and I think we’re still going. We’re going to get better in the second half and I mean it’d be cool to win the second half too,” said Hot Rods Outfielder Noah Myers. “I don’t think the goal changes at all. It just kind of gives us some confidence knowing that we have that in our back pocket, that we’re going to be in the playoffs. [We’ll] just kind of feed off of that and play with that in the second half.”

The team is wrapping up its series against Hub City in town this weekend but will then embark on a road trip-filled July as it begins the second half of the season.