Bats Storm Back For Thrilling 5-4 Victory

Down to their last three outs, the Louisville Bats rallied back from the brink to tie the game in the ninth before winning 5-4 in 10 innings over the Omaha Storm Chasers on Saturday night at Werner Park.

The win extends the Bats’ winning streak to three games and guarantees them at least a .500 record for the first half, putting their record at 37-36 with one game remaining.

Trailing 4-3 in the ninth, the bottom of the Bats order came through to extend the game Omaha closer Will Klien. With one out, catcher Eric Yang was called out on a 3-2 pitch at the bottom of the strike zone for what looked to be the second out of the inning. Yang successfully challenged the call, turning strike three into ball four to put the tying run aboard. Michael Trautwein came in to pinch-run for Yang. Drew Mount was called on to pinch hit and delivered with his first Bats hit of the season, a ground ball single past first to put runners on the corners. A wild pitch from Klein gave Trautwein the opportunity to come home and score the tying run.

Alan Busenitz (W, 4-2) retired the Storm Chasers in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game to extra innings. Leading off the top of the 10^th, Edwin Rios’ ground ball went through the Omaha second baseman and into right field for an error, bringing automatic runner Hernan Perez in from second with the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of the 10^th, Busenitz would not let the automatic runner move off second base, inducing two foul pop ups and a ground out back to the mound to finish the Bats’ third victory in a row.

Louisville also began the game in fine form, wasting no time in striking against Omaha starter Chandler Champlain. Levi Jordan got it started with a leadoff double on the game’s third pitch. Blake Dunn then doubled to center, putting runners at second and third with nobody out. An RBI ground out from Rios plated Jordan to open the scoring. Two hitters later, Rece Hinds’ double into the right field corner gave the Bats a 2-0 lead after their first turn at the dish.

Making his Triple-A debut, Bats righty Julian Aguiar cruised through a one, two, three bottom of the first. The Bats would give him some more support in the next inning.

Peyton Burdick and Yang began the second with back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Erik Gonzalez followed with a fielder’s choice ground out to shortstop, scoring Burdick to give the Bata a 3-0 lead.

Aguiar worked around a pair of two-out hits to toss a scoreless second before a clean third. But the fourth wouldn’t be as kind. With two outs, a grounder from Devin Mann resulted in an error to extend the inning. Nick Pratto then got the Storm Chasers on the board with one big swing, a two-run home run to right-center field to make it a 3-2 game after four.

In the bottom of the fifth, a single and a wild pitch put the tying run at second with one out. He ended his start by striking out John Rave and inducing a fly out from Drew Waters. Over five innings, Aguiar allowed two runs, both unearned, on four hits with two strikeouts to leave in line for the win.

Casey Legumina was first out of the Louisville bullpen and tossed a scoreless sixth. The Bats put two on against reliever Walter Pennington in the seventh, but were unable to extend the lead. Legumina allowed a single but was one out away from holding the lead after seven. However, Rave turned the game around with a two-run homer to right, his 12^th of the season down the right field line, giving the Storm Chasers the lead for the first time at 4-3 after seven, setting the stage for the Louisville comeback.

Offensively, Jordan was the only Bat to record more than one hit, going 2-for-5 with a double and a run scored. Yang walked twice in his Louisville season debut. The win is the Bats’ second when trailing after eight innings this season.

The Bats (37-36) finish up the first half with the series finale against Omaha (49-23) on Sunday afternoon. First pitch at Werner Park is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. ET. Nick Curran will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.