Chris Okey Hits for the Cycle as Bats Blast Stripers, 11-3

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA – Chris Okey hit for the cycle and tallied five RBIs in an 11-3 Louisville victory over Gwinnett at Coolray Field on Saturday night.

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Louisville starter, Justin Nicolino (0-1, 17.36), ran into some trouble early, giving up a pair of runs in the home-half of the opening frame thanks to an RBI-double and RBI-single from Gwinnett’s Pat Valaika and Joe Dunand, respectively.

In the top of the second, Louisville was threatening to cut into the deficit with runners at first and second and two outs, when Gwinnett starter Nolan Kingham (1-0, 3.00) attempted a pickoff move to second base. The throw was in time to get Ronnie Dawson, but an impressive swim-move slide back into the base evaded the tag.

On the very next pitch, TJ Friedl lifted a shallow fly ball that found some grass in left field, and drove in Dawson to cut the Stripers lead to 2-1.

After running into more trouble in the second inning, and even falling to the ground during the delivery of a pitch, Louisville skipper Pat Kelly and the team trainer Steve Gober came to the mound to remove Nicolino from the game due to injury.

Entering the game in Nicolino’s absence, Bats’ reliever Pedro Payano was able to limit the damage of a bases-loaded, one-out situation to just one run and sent the game to the third inning with Gwinnett holding a 3-1 advantage.

Following a couple of quiet middle innings, the Bats made their move in the top of the sixth. After two outs were made and Max Schrock reached by error, the Louisville offense exploded, stringing together six hits to produce five runs. The scoring flurry was led by a three-run home run from Ronnie Dawson and a two-run shot from TJ Friedl, giving the Bats a 6-3 lead.

Louisville piled on in the seventh when Chris Okey came through with some timely hitting, blasting a three-run home run off of former Bat, and his former battery-mate, RJ Alaniz.

Okey would get his chance in the ninth to complete the cycle after a double from Cristian Santana and Ronnie Dawson worked a walk to move Okey through the lineup, bringing him to the plate with two outs. His possible penchant for high-drama worked the count full before he roped a line drive over the head of right-fielder Phil Gosselin to snag the elusive double he needed and complete the historic cycle.

It is just the seventh cycle in Louisville franchise history and the first since Brandon Dixon on July 17, 2018 at Rochester.

After the rough start on the bump, the Louisville bullpen combined to toss 7.2 scoreless innings to end the game, striking out seven and walking just one.

The final game of the six-game series will be Sunday afternoon at Coolray Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. Louisville will have the opportunity to split the series with a win as right-hander Ben Lively (1-4, 4.50) will start for the Bats, while righty Bryce Elder (2-1, 5.10) will be on the bump for Gwinnett.