Tides jump to early lead, drop Bats in rubber match

LOUISVILLE, Ky.-The Louisville Bats (12-20) dropped the rubber match of a three-game slate to the Norfolk Tides (14-18), 7-2, Wednesday afternoon on Education Day at Louisville Slugger Field.
Bats right-hander Jackson Stephens was chased early allowing the first six Tides batters to reach safely. Stephens' outing would be cut short after two-thirds of an innings after allowing six runs to score on eight hits and a walk.
Right-handed reliever Kyle McMyne would be tasked with getting out of a bases loaded jam to end the top of the first inning. McMyne would throw just two pitches, getting a ground out to end the six-run Norfolk inning.
The Bats began to chip away at the deficit in the second when a leadoff double by Rob Brantly set up a two-run homer off the left field foul pole. Renda's first long ball of the season made it a 6-2 score after two innings.
McMyne faced 11 batters in three and one-third innings of work, one more than the minimum, allowing one hit and one walk. The righty also struck out two batters to keep the Bats in contention.
Offensively, Louisville put runners in scoring position in innings three through six but could not add to their score. Coming close to plating a run in the bottom of the sixth, the Bats loaded the bases on singles by Sebastian Elizalde, Zach Vincej, and Hernan Iribarren but failed to score.
Left-hander Lucas Luetge also put in three innings of work in relief, highlighted by four strikeouts to bring his season total to 21. Luetge did surrender the seventh Norfolk run of the ball game in the sixth inning, increasing the Louisville deficit to five runs, 7-2.
With just one base runner in the final three innings, the Bats failed to add a run en route to dropping their seventh-consecutive series. Stephens dropped to 2-3 on the year after being awarded the loss.   
Next up for the Bats will be the Charlotte Knights (14-16), who come to Louisville for a four-game series set to begin Thursday evening at 7:05 p.m. Right-hander Rob Wooten (1-2, 5.91 ERA) gets the start for Louisville opposite right-hander Reynaldo Lopez (3-1, 3.94 ERA) for the Knights.