Kennedy's Stellar Start Leads Bats To 9-3 Win

Louisville Bats starter Brett Kennedy pitched eight strong innings in the longest outing by a Bats pitcher this season and the offense did more than enough to support him in a 9-3 victory over the Nashville Sounds in front of an energetic crowd of 6,033 on Saturday night at Louisville Slugger Field.

Kennedy (W, 1-2) was effective for a career-high eight innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts to earn his first victory of the season.

The two teams traded early runs to start the night. Nashville opened the scoring off Kennedy with an RBI single from Francisco Mejia to score Isaac Collins, who reached with a two-out double. Leading off the bottom of the inning, Blake Dunn connected on a 366-foot leadoff home run, his second of the season, to even the score against Nashville starter Nick Bennett (L, 1-2).

An inning later, the Bats took the lead for the first time on Peyton Burdick’s first home run as a member of the Cincinnati Reds organization, a 394-foot solo blast to right-center to make it a 2-1 game.

Kennedy and Bennett then traded zeroes until the fifth, when Vinny Capra tied the game for the Sounds with a solo home run to left-center. Kennedy rebounded to retire the next three hitters he faced and keep the score even.

In the bottom of the frame, Louisville went to work. Erik Gonzalez singled and Livan Soto walked to put two on with two out. Rece Hinds followed by crushing a line drive that left his bat at 112.5 miles per hour off the wall in left for a two-run double to restore the Bats’ lead.

Pitching with the lead again, Kennedy got a double play to work around a runner in both the sixth and seventh innings before the Bats offense put the game out of reach.

Levi Jordan led off the bottom of the seventh with a soft ground ball that rolled off the third base bag for an infield single. Gonzalez walked and Dunn was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out against Sounds reliever James Meeker. Soto cashed in with a double to the gap in right-center, scoring Jordan and Gonzalez to make it 6-2. Two hitters later, Edwin Rios crushed a double that hopped off the wall in right to plate Dunn and Soto, giving the Bats their biggest lead of the night at 8-2.

Nashville got a run closer in the eighth on Isaac Collins’ solo homer, but that was the last of the damage they could do against Kennedy. An RBI single from Levi Jordan in the bottom of the eighth capped the game’s scoring.

Alan Busenitz was first out of the Louisville bullpen and quickly dispatched the Sounds in the ninth to finish the victory.

Offensively, eight of the nine Bats starters recorded a hit in the victory. Soto went 2-for-3 with a double, two runs, two RBI, and two walks in the win. Hinds and Rios each also drove in a pair while Burdick, Jordan, and Gonzalez posted two hits in the win as the Bats clinched a series victory, taking four of the first five games.

The Bats (13-13) and Sounds (12-14) conclude their series with a matinee on Sunday afternoon. First pitch at Louisville Slugger Field is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. Nick Curran and Jim Kelch will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.