Bats Rally For Thrilling Opening Night Victory

The Louisville Bats stormed back in the middle innings, erasing two multi-run deficits to begin the 2024 season with a 9-8 victory over the Indianapolis Indians on Friday night at Louisville Slugger Field.

The win is the first Opening Night victory for the Bats in nearly a decade. The win marks the first time the Bats earned an Opening Night victory since April 4, 2014 at Toledo, snapping a season-opening eight-game losing streak. Overall, Louisville is now 17-21 overall on Opening Night. The nine runs were the most runs scored by Louisville on Opening Nights since April 6, 2000, when they fell 12-10 at Norfolk.

Trailing 7-4 going to the bottom of the fifth, the Bats rallied to turn the game in their favor against the Indianapolis bullpen. Rece Hinds got the inning started with a towering 415-foot solo homer to left, his first at the Triple-A level to make it 7-5.

Conner Capel walked and Quincy McAfee was hit by a pitch to put two on. A sacrifice bunt from Francisco Urbaez moved the runners into scoring position. Jacob Hurtubise followed with a sharp two-run single to right to tie the game at seven. Walks to Hernan Perez and Blake Dunn loaded the bases. P.J. Higgins then put the Bats in front for the first time with a two-run single to left.

Pitching with a lead for the first time, the Bats bullpen was lights out. Justin Bruihl set the Indians down in order in the top of the seventh and Alan Busenitz worked around a single to fire a scoreless top of the eighth. In the ninth, Tony Santillan (S, 1) allowed a solo home run to Jake Lamb, but responded to record here strikeouts in earning his first save of the season.

The game didn’t begin as well as it ended for Louisville.

Getting the first Opening Night start of his professional career, Bats righty Connor Spiers got off on the right foot, retiring the first six hitters he faced including a pair of strikeouts. Indianapolis southpaw Michael Plassmeyer was equally sharp, setting the first 10 Bats down in order.

The Indians were able to break through in the top of the third on a two-run opposite field homer to right from Nick Gonzales. They doubled the lead in the fourth to extend the lead to four runs.

In the bottom of the frame, the Bats finally spoiled Plassmeyer’s perfection. With one out, Perez successfully overturned a strike call with a challenge to get the count in his favor before launching a solo home run to left for Louisville’s first run of the year.

From there, the back-and-forth slugfest began. Indianapolis got the run back to take a 5-1 lead in the top of the fifth, chasing Spiers from the game in the process. Over four innings, he allowed five runs on five hits with one walk and three strikeouts.

The Bats worked hard to cut the deficit to one in the bottom of the fifth. Capel reached with a one-out single, stole second, and later scored on Urbaez’s double off the wall in left. Walks to Hurtubise and Perez loaded the bases. In his Triple-A debut, Dunn made it a one-run game with a two-run opposite field single to right.

Indianapolis restored a three-run lead in the top of the sixth with two runs off rehabbing Reds southpaw Sam Moll (W, 1-0). The Bats turned the game around for good in the bottom half of the inning in route to the win.

All nine Bats starters reached base with either a hit or a walk. Hurtubise, Dunn, and Higgins all drove in two runs. Urbaez went 2-for-3 with a double, the only Bat to record a multi-hit game.

The series continues on Saturday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 2:05 p.m. in a battle of premier pitching prospects. Paul Skenes will toe the slab in his Triple-A debut for the Indians against the Bats’ Lyon Richardson.