Late Homer Too Much For Bats In 3-2 Loss
Carson Spiers throws his third quality start of the season, but the Louisville Bats fell 3-2 to Iowa Cubs on Saturday night at Louisville Slugger Field After a scoreless first inning, P.J. Higgins led the second off with a solo shot to extend Louisville’s home run streak to 24 games.
Carson Spiers throws his third quality start of the season, but the Louisville Bats fell 3-2 to Iowa Cubs on Saturday night at Louisville Slugger Field
After a scoreless first inning, P.J. Higgins led the second off with a solo shot to extend Louisville’s home run streak to 24 games. With no outs, Peyton Burdick walked and Michael Trautwein singled to right. A ground out moved the runners over to second and third. The second run of the inning would cross home plate on a ball put in play by Austin Wynns, giving the Bats a 2-0 lead.
The I-Cubs responded in the following frame. Singles by B.J. Murray Jr. and Cole Roederer put runners on the corners with two outs. Cubs prospect Owen Caissie launched a double to the right field corner to score both runners and to tie the game at 2-2.
Spiers had a fantastic outing for Louisville, earning his third quality start of the year. He allowed two runs and four hits, while striking out seven batters in six innings of work.
Thomas Pannone was pulled after five innings for the I-Cubs, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks while striking out three. Sam McWilliams (W, 3-2) replaced Pannone in the following frame, throwing two innings and allowing no hits.
With the game tied, the Bats turned to Justin Bruihl who threw one inning and allowed no baserunners, needing only 12 pitches to retire the I-Cubs in the top of the seventh.
Caissie gave Iowa the lead in the following inning with a 443-foot solo shot off of Alan Busenitz (L, 2-2) in the top of the eighth, making the score 3-2 in favor of the visitors
Carl Edwards Jr. (S, 6) took the mound in the bottom of the ninth to secure the win for the Iowa Cubs, throwing a one, two, three inning to earn the save.
Higgins, Hernan Perez, and Erik Gonzlalez combined for six of the seven Louisville hits in the loss.
Louisville (31-24) will play the final game of the series against the I-Cubs (26-30) on Sunday, June 2 with the first pitch set for 1:05 p.m. Nick Curran and Jim Kelch are on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.