SAINTS HELD TO THREE HITS IN RAIN-SHORTENED LOSS

LOUISVILLE, KY (July 9, 2024) — The St. Paul Saints have historically swung the bat well in Louisville, but it was the Bats who flipped the script on Tuesday, beating the Saints 8-1 in a rain-shortened, five-inning game in front of a crowd of 4,463.

The Louisville Bats struck for four runs in the first inning, getting back-to-back singles from Jacob Hurtubise before Caleb Boushley hit Tony Kemp with a pitch, loading the bases. PJ Higgins hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Hurtubise, giving Louisville a 1-0 lead. Then, Connor Capel hit a ground ball to first base, Yunior Severino’s throw to second went off Diego A. Castillo’s glove and into left field, scoring Levi Jordan to make it 2-0 on the error. Michael Trautwein then hit a single to right field, bringing in Kemp and making it 3-0. Hernán Pérez followed with another sacrifice fly to center that scored Capel, the fourth run of the first inning for the Bats.

The Saints got their first hit in the second inning, a leadoff double from Jair Camargo. However, Randy Wynne sat down the next three batters in order.

Louisville tacked on three more in the third inning. Erick Gonzalez reached on an overthrow from Edouard Julien. Hurtubise then walked, which marked the first walk Boushley issued this season with runners on base. Jordan then hit a three-run home run to left-center field, his sixth of the season, giving the Bats a 7-0 lead. Boushely would strike out two of the next four batters, giving up a single to Kemp and a double to Trautwein. In the next at-bat, with a 1-2 count on Pérez, the rain returned and the tarp went on the field, delaying the game for a second time.

After the game resumed, Julien got the Saints on the board in the third inning by hitting his fourth home run with the Saints, a solo blast with two outs that went an estimated 450 feet to left-center field, making it 7-1.

Brock Stewart began his Major League Rehab assignment with the Saints in the fourth inning. He struck out one and walked two, working around the free passes with an inning-ending double play on a ground ball to short.

Chris Williams continued his hot stretch with a two-out single roped into left field, but that is all the Saints got in the fourth inning and would be the final of the three hits the Saints got against Wynne in the rain-shortened loss.

In the bottom of the fifth, Ronny Henriquez took over for Stewart. He surrendered a solo home run to Pérez to open the frame, giving the Bats an 8-1 advantage. He recorded the first out of the inning on a Drew Mount groundout to first base before the rain came down again, forcing the game into its third delay of the night. After a 30-minute delay, the umpires called the game in the bottom of the fifth.

The Saints and Bats will meet again tomorrow in game two of the six-game series on Wednesday evening at 5:35 CT at Louisville Slugger Field. The Saints will send RHP David Festa (3-2, 3.77) to the mound against Bats RHP Lyon Richardson (1-6, 4.48). The game can be heard on KFAN Plus, 96.7 FM.