Louisville Clinches Series Win With 5-1 Victory Over St. Paul
With an offensive explosion in the early innings, the Louisville Bats claimed their fifth win in a row and secured the series win against the St. Paul Saints with a final score of 5-1 on Friday night at Louisville Slugger Field. Louisville came out swinging in the bottom of the
With an offensive explosion in the early innings, the Louisville Bats claimed their fifth win in a row and secured the series win against the St. Paul Saints with a final score of 5-1 on Friday night at Louisville Slugger Field.
Louisville came out swinging in the bottom of the first with a leadoff single from Jacob Hurtubise. He extended his hit streak to nine games and, after stealing second, recorded a stolen base in his third straight game. Blake Dunn followed up by drawing a walk, and Livan Soto put the Bats on the board with an RBI single. Levi Jordan also knocked a single to stretch the Louisville lead to 2-0.
Following a one-two-three inning from righthanded starter Julian Aguiar (W, 2-0), the Bats lineup continued their effort into the second. Again, Hurtubise got the rally going with a one-out single. After moving to second on a sacrifice bunt from Dunn, Hurtubise scored on Soto’s second RBI hit of the night to put the tally at 3-0. In the bottom of the third, Conner Capel smashed a 413-foot solo home run, his 11th of the season, to make it 4-0.
St. Paul attempted to score in the top of the fourth when DaShawn Keirsey Jr. smacked a two-out single, but he was caught stealing by Bats catcher Eric Yang for the third out of the inning.
Continuing the onslaught, Hurtubise clocked his first longball of the season in the bottom half of the inning, extending the Bats’ advantage to a comfortable 5-0.
After a couple of scoreless innings, the Saints fought back in the top of the eighth. St. Paul combined a two-out walk to Edouard Julien and a double from Yunior Severino before capitalizing on a throwing error by Soto to bring the score to 5-1.
In his fourth start for Louisville, Aguiar allowed just one hit and zero earned runs with six strikeouts through five frames to earn the victory. Evan Kravetz and Yosver Zulueta took care of the next three innings, allowing just four hits and one run.
Coming on in the ninth, Zach Maxwell was lights-out with three strikeouts in a row to close out the win with a final score of 5-1.
Aguiar claimed the win, his second for the Bats, and the Saints’ David Festa took home the loss (L, 3-3). Hurtubise went 3-for-4 in the win, hitting his first home run of the season and a stolen base. Soto went 2-for-4 with two RBI in the triumph. The win is the Bats’ fifth in a row, their longest winning streak of the 2024 season.
The Bats (46-43, 8-7 second half) continue their six-game set with the Saints (44-46, 6-10 second half) on Saturday night. First pitch at Louisville Slugger Field is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET. Nick Curran will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.