Bats Pitching Struggles In 10-3 Loss

A close game early unraveled late for the Louisville Bats in a 10-3 loss to the Nashville Sounds in the third game of their six-game series on Thursday night at First Horizon Park.

Following a Bats victory in the resumption of Wednesday’s suspended game, the regularly scheduled game got underway with Louisville going quietly in the top of the first against Nashville starter Garrett Stallings.

In the bottom of the frame, Bats righty Lyon Richardson got two quick outs. The third one wouldn’t come so quickly. A pair of walks and an infield single loaded the bases. Richardson escaped a scoreless inning by inducing a ground out to first from Francisco Mejia.

Louisville struck first in the top of the second as Peyton Burdick connected on his 11^th home run of the season and seventh with Louisville, a 398-foot solo blast to deep left-center, the first time in the series the Bats have struck first.

The Sounds got the run right back in the bottom of the inning on Freddy Zamora’s RBI ground out to score Patrick Dorrian, who began the inning with a walk.

Stallings and Richardson traded clean frames in the third, giving the Bats an opportunity to retake the lead in the fourth. Edwin Rios began the inning with a single and Burdick walked to put tow on with nobody out. Two hitters later, catcher Austin Wynns laced an RBI single to right, scoring Rios from second to put the visitors up 2-1.

Nashville fought back in the bottom of the fifth. A single and a stolen base by Isaac Collins put the tying run at second. Joey Wiemer tied the game with a double into the left field corner. Back-to-back ground outs brought Wiemer in to score the go-ahead run, capped by Mejia’s RBI ground out to second.

Richardson couldn’t quite finish the sixth, as a two-out walk extended the inning and brought an end to his outing. Evan Kravetz came in and gave up two straight singles, with Collins’ RBI hit to left doubling the Nashville lead to 4-2.

Over 5.2 innings, Richardson (L, 1-2) gave up four runs on five hits, walking five and striking out three in his second loss of the season.

The game disintegrated for the Bats in the seventh, as the Sounds plated four runs off Stevie Branche to extend their lead to 8-2, putting the game out of reach.

Conner Capel got Louisville a little closer with a broken-bat RBI single in the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the inning, the Bats put Wynns on the mound and he gave up three runs in his first career Minor League pitching appearance, walking three and allowing two runs as the Nashville lead ballooned to 10-3, the eventual final.

Rios led the way for the Bats, going 3-for-4 while scoring two of Louisville’s three runs in the loss. For Nashville, reliever Janson Junk (W, 1-1) earned the victory with 1.1 clean relief innings. All nine Sounds starters reached base with either a hit or a walk.

The Bats (33-26) and Sounds (32-28) resume the series on Friday night. First pitch at First Horizon Park is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. Nick Curran will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.