Louisville's Lead Slips Away In Loss At Toledo

The Louisville Bats continued to struggle against the Toledo Mud Hens, squandering a ninth inning lead in a 4-3 loss on Saturday night at Fifth Third Field.

Louisville claimed an early lead in the top of the first, taking advantage of a one-out double by Ivan Johnson in his first Triple-A start. An RBI single from Edwin Ríos brought Johnson home, putting the Bats on the board at 1-0.

Toledo answered in the bottom of the second with a leadoff single from Justice Bigbie. Riley Unroe then singled and stole second to put runners in scoring position for Stephen Scott, who knocked a sacrifice fly to even the score at 1-1. With a runner at third, Bats starter Brandon Leibrandt secured back-to-back groundouts to escape the frame still tied.

Thanks to a leadoff double in the top of the third, Conner Capel reached for the Bats. Though he advanced to third on a flyout by Jacob Hurtubise, Capel was ultimately stranded.

Following a couple more quiet innings, the Bats kicked off a rally in the top of the sixth. Livan Soto drew a one-out walk and later scored on a double from Ríos, his second RBI of the night, to regain the lead. P.J. Higgins then smacked a groundout to move Ríos into scoring position, setting up Tony Kemp who doubled to add another for Louisville. Kemp’s RBI was his seventh double of the year and put the tally at 3-1.

The Bats threatened to score once more in the top of the eighth, getting two runners with Johnson at third, but the lineup was unable to capitalize. Again, in the top of the ninth, Louisville reached with a double from Michael Trautwein. Despite moving to third on a grounder from Erik González, Trautwein was also left on base.

Toledo kicked off a final scoring burst in the bottom of the ninth, closing the gap with a single from Drew Maggi and a bases-loaded walk to Dillon Dingler. With the bases still loaded, John Murphy was called in to try and send the game to extras. He could not, issuing a walk to Ryan Kreidler scored the walk-off run for Toledo.

Louisville starter Leibrandt tossed five innings, allowing just one earned run on three hits with five strikeouts. Closer Zach Maxwell took home the loss (L, 3-1) after giving up three earned runs in the bottom of the ninth. Ríos led the way for the Bats offense, going 2-for-2 with two RBI and two walks. Toledo’s Andrew Magno claimed the win (W, 2-5) with two scoreless relief innings.

Louisville (49-50, 11-14 second half) will close out the series against Toledo (47-53, 12-14 second half) on Sunday, July 28 with the first pitch scheduled for 2:05 p.m. at Fifth Third Field. Nick Curran will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.