Bats Even Series With Twin Bill Sweep

The Louisville Bats held to earn a pair of close victories against the Toledo Mud Hens on Friday night at Fifth Third Field, winning an extra-inning thriller 4-2 in the opener than taking advantage of Toledo mistakes in a 6-5 win in the nightcap to even their six-game series with a doubleheaders weep.

The opener was a pitcher’s duel, with Toledo righty Matt Manning shutting down the Bats early. Louisville starter Randy Wynne was also efficient, but he was the one to make the first mistake.

Wynne left one pitch out over the plate with one out in the bottom of the third, and Justice Bigbie hit it over the left field fence for his third home run of the season to open the scoring.

Pitching with the lead, Manning cruised through the third and fourth. Toledo looked to add on in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out double from Riley Unroe. But Bigbie, who singled earlier in the inning, took too big a turn rounding third base and was thrown out getting back to the bag to end the inning, and Wynne’s start. Over four innings, he allowed one run on five hits with four strikeouts.

Manning departed after five hitless innings, walking three and striking out five to depart in line for the win. Against reliever Mason Englert, the Bats offense finally broke through. Rece Hinds recorded the Bats’ first hit with a one-out single. Livan Soto walked to put two on. P.J. Higgins followed with a bloop single to shallow left, bringing Hinds home from second with the tying run.

Brooks Kriske kept the tie with two strikeouts in the bottom of the sixth, finishing his relief outing with five strikeouts over two clean frames. Englert and Yosver Zulueta traded scoreless innings, sending the game to extra innings.

in the eighth, the Bats couldn’t bring a run across against Mud Hens righty Devin Sweet (L, 4-5). Bats closer Tony Santillan then got three straight outs with the winning run on second, extending the game to a ninth inning.

Leading off the ninth, Soto singled and advanced to second on an error while Hinds, the automatic runner, moved to third. Following an intentional walk to Edwin Rios, Michael Trautwein put the Bats ahead for the first time with a double off the wall in left, scoring Hinds and Soto. A sacrifice fly from Conner Capel increased the lead to 4-1, and that would be enough.

Santillan (W, 2-4) allowed a run in the bottom of the ninth but struck out Drew Maggi to end the game with the tying runs on base to finish the victory and earn his second win of the year.

Louisville won the game despite being outhit 7-4, with Trautwein’s ninth-inning double proving decisive. Rios took three walks in the opening win while Soto was 1-for-2 with two walks.

The second game started like the first, with Toledo scoring first against Bats starter Julian Aguiar. The Bats responded in the second. Higgins began it with a single. Capel followed with an RBI triple deep into the gap in right-center to tie the game. Hernan Perez then lined a triple of his own into the right-field corner, giving the Bats back-to-back triples and a 2-1 lead.

The score stayed 2-1 until a wild top of the fourth. Perez, Eric Yang, and Drew Mount took consecutive one-out walks to load the bases. With Erik Gonzalez at the plate, Toledo reliever Austin Schulfer incredibly threw three straight wild pitches, allowing all three runners to score and increase the Bats lead to 5-1 without a swing of the bat. Following a walk to Gonzalez, Hurtubise cranked the Bats’ third triple of the night to the gap in right-center, scoring Gonzalez for a 6-1 lead.

Toledo countered with three runs off Aguiar in the fourth to end his start. In his second Triple-A outing, Aguiar gave up four runs while striking out six and walking three over four innings.

Christian Roa gave up a run in the fifth but was able to hold the lead. Alex Young (W, 2-0) navigated around a leadoff single to fire a scoreless bottom of the sixth. Zach Maxwell (S, 1) was called on in a save opportunity in the seventh. A one-out single brought the winning run to the plate for Toledo. Maxwell struck out the next two hitters he faced to keep the tying run on base, finishing the doubleheader sweep and earning his first Triple-A save.

In the nightcap, the Bats set a season-high with three triples, needing only five hits to score the six runs in completing their third doubleheader sweep of the season and second over Toledo.

The Bats (40-38, 2-2 second half) continue the series with the Mud Hens (37-41, 2-2 second half) on Saturday night. First pitch at Fifth Third Field is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET. Nick Curran and Jim Kelch will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.