Bats Win Finale In St. Paul 7-6

All nine Louisville Bats starters recorded a hit, powering the offense to a 7-6 win over the St. Paul Saints in the finale of their six-game series at CHS Field on Sunday afternoon.

Louisville righty Lyon Richardson and St. Paul starter David Festa each threw a scoreless first, allowing only one walk each. An inning later, Edwin Rios put the Bats on the board with a solo home run over the left field fence, his fourth of the year.

Louisville batted around in the following frame while continuing to add to their lead. Austin Wynns began the inning with a leadoff single and then scored on Hernán Pérez’s double off the center field wall. Pérez stole third base, which put him in position to cross home plate on TJ Friedl’s single. With one out, back-to-back singles allowed Friedl to score. Peyton Burdick was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but the Bats were unable to take advantage, making the score 4-0.

The Saints answered in the home half of the inning. DaShawn Keirsey Jr. started the rally with a line drive single to left. After a popup to second, Matt Wallner singled and Michael Helman doubled to bring one run home. With runners on the corners, Alex Isola launched a homerun to tie the game at 4-4.

The Bats regained the lead in the top of the fourth. Hernán Pérez sent a solo shot over the left field wall, ending the Festa’s (L, 0-1) day after 3.1 innings and five earned runs. The new pitcher walked and gave up a hit to the first two batters he faced. With two runners on and two out, P.J. Higgins singled, allowing Friedl to score and extending Louisville’s lead to 6-4.

Burdick put Louisville up three with a solo shot to lead off the top of the fifth inning. Conner Capel singled in the following at-bat and stole his team-leading sixth base of the season but was left stranded.

Casey Legumina (W, 1-1) and Alex Young combined for four total innings of relief for the Bats and allowed no runs on two hits and one walk while striking out three.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Saints singled twice and walked once off Alan Busenitz to load the bases. With two outs and a new pitcher, Anthony Prato drew a four-pitch walk to force in a run, cutting the Bats’ lead to 7-5.

St. Paul threatened a comeback in the bottom of the ninth. Helman drew a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the ninth and a throwing error on an attempted pickoff moved him over to third base. Helman scored a sacrifice fly by Yunior Severino. But Bats closer Tony Santillan (S, 6) made sure the Saints couldn’t get any closer, finishing the win and earning his league-leading sixth save of the season.

Four Bats starters had multi-hit efforts in Sunday’s victory. P.J. Higgins went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBI. Rece Hinds, Friedl, and Pérez each posted two hits as well.

The Bats (16-17) will enjoy their off day on Monday before facing the Indianapolis Indians (16-14) in a six-game series at Louisville Slugger Field. Game one of the series will be on Tuesday with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 pm ET. Nick Curran and Jim Kelch will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.