Alton (IL)  The Alton River Dragons bullpen was nearly perfect and the bats came alive late, sparking a 7-4 come from behind win over the Terre Haute Rex on Friday.

Alex Rodriguez pitched 4 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball out of the bullpen to provide the foundation to the comeback.

Terre Haute had taken a 3-0 lead through the first two innings. Starter Charlie Hodges battled, but notably, stranded the bases loaded in the second inning preventing the Rex from breaking the game open.

Rodriguez took over in the fourth and held Terre Haute at three.

Meanwhile, Alton couldn’t do much off Terre Haute starter Dawson Smith and trailed 3-1 through seven.

In the top of the eighth, Terre Haute loaded the bases with one out. Colin Hawkins came on to induce an inning ending double play.  Then in the bottom of the inning, Terre Haute went to the bullpen and the River Dragons capitalized.

The first two batters reached via walks. Tyler Martin advanced them with a sacrifice bunt.  Pinch hitter Victor Heredia then hit a slow grounder to second for an infield hit and a run scored cutting the lead to 3-2.

Brayden Caskey tied the score with a ground out.

The River Dragons took the lead on R.J. LaRocco’s flare base hit to right field and it was 4-3.  An Erik Broekemeier single to center extended the lead to 5-3.

Alton would make it 7-3 later in the inning on a wild pitch that scored a runner from third and a subsequent bad throw from the backstop allowing another runner to cross home.

Terre Haute plated a run in the ninth but it wasn’t enough.

The win is the second this season when trailing after seven for the River Dragons.  Its also the team’s second “last at bat” victory.