Bats Fall 11-5 In Game Five Against Knights

The Louisville Bats stumbled early and couldn’t complete a comeback, falling 11-5 to the Charlotte Knights at Louisville Slugger Field on Saturday night in front of an energetic crowd of 9,010.

The Knights got off to a hot start against Bats starter Justus Sheffield in the first, recording four hits and two runs before the lefty recorded the first out. Colson Montgomery then tripled to drive in two more runs, extending Charlotte’s lead to 4-0 heading into the bottom half.

The Bats tallied a run in the bottom of the first against Knights starter Mason Adams, as Blake Dunn led off with a single and Edwin Ríos and Davis Wendzel both earned walks to load the bases with two outs. P.J. Higgins worked a walk of his own to score Dunn and make the score 4-1, but Louisville couldn’t get any more runs across in the frame.

After Sheffield threw a scoreless second, the Bats offense went back to work in the home half. Erik González singled to begin the inning and later scored on a Dunn single to cut the Louisville deficit to 4-2.

The Knights added three more runs in the top of the third off Sheffield, increasing their lead to 7-2, before he was replaced by Connor Overton. The righty recorded the final two outs of the inning and returned to pitch the fourth as well, but he allowed a two-run home run that gave the Knights a seven-run advantage at 9-2.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Bats showed signs of life. Gonzalez worked a walk against Adams before the righty was replaced by Deivi García in what was deemed an injury change. Dunn and Ivan Johnson also both walked to load the bases with no outs, and Joey Wiemer tallied his first Bats hit with a single that scored González. Ríos then followed with a sacrifice fly to score Johnson, inching Louisville closer at 9-4.

With Overton still on the mound, Charlotte added another run in the top of the fifth on a solo shot by Michael Chavis to make the score 10-4. Brooks Crawford was called on to take over for Overton, and he finished off the fifth for the Bats.

After a couple scoreless frames, Louisville kept chipping away in the bottom of the sixth. Dunn singled again and Tony Kemp followed with a double that allowed Dunn to cross the plate, but that was as close as the Bats would get at 10-5.

Both teams went down in order in the seventh, and Reiver Sanmartin came on for the top of the eighth. The lefty allowed a single to begin his outing but leaned on a double play and a groundout to post a zero.

After a scoreless eighth for both teams, Christian Roa took the mound for the Bats and allowed a leadoff home run to Tim Elko before leaving the game with an apparent injury. He was replaced by Brooks Kriske who threw a clean inning, converting all three batters he faced into outs.

The Bats were unable to record a baserunner in the bottom of the ninth, striking out twice and falling 11-5 to Charlotte on Saturday night. Dunn led the way for the Bats, going 3-for-4 with two runs, an RBI, and a stolen base. No other Bat recorded more than one hit.

The Bats (54-57, 16-21 second half) and Knights (51-59, 18-18 second half) wrap up the series on Sunday afternoon at Louisville Slugger Field. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. Nick Curran and Jim Kelch will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.