Bats Falter in Extras, Fall 6-5 in Series Finale

The Louisville Bats fought hard down the stretch, but ultimately fell in extra innings to the Indianapolis Indians in Sunday’s series finale, 6-5.

The first three innings of the ballgame flew by, with Louisville’s Chase Petty and Indy’s Bubba Chandler matching zeroes in the early going. Both starters recorded four punchouts in their first three frames, with only two total runners reaching base.

The Bats finally put a hit on the board as Austin Hays, finalizing a rehab assignment, reached on a high chopper down the third base line with one out in the fourth. Ivan Johnson came up with two outs and cracked his third home run of the season over the left field wall to give Louisville a 2-0 lead heading into the fifth.

Petty continued his strong work the next inning, finishing his day with five shutout frames and striking out four while scattering just four base runners for the afternoon. Sam Benschoter tossed two scoreless innings in relief of Petty to keep the Indy bats at bay moving into the late innings.

The score remained 2-0 heading into the eighth, when Louisville made its second pitching change, going to lefty Joe La Sorsa to face the top of the Indy order. A four-pitch walk put leadoff hitter Ji-Hwan Bae on base before Nick Solak ripped a double into the left field corner to bring around Bae and cut the Bats lead in half.

La Sorsa responded by retiring the next two Indy batters before Louisville dipped back into its bullpen, calling on veteran Bryan Shaw to go for the final out of the inning. The Indians kept their strong inning rolling, stringing together an RBI double by Matt Gorski and an RBI single by Liover Peguero to take a 3-2 lead. Indy capitalized on a Bats fielding error to extend their lead to 4-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth.

Rece Hinds led off the frame for the Bats, pinch hitting for Eric Yang in the eight-hole and punching a double down the right field line. Tyler Callihan sent a ground ball back through the middle to bring around Hinds, cutting the Louisville deficit to just one run. Callihan swiped second to put the tying run in scoring position, but the Bats couldn’t bring him home, trailing 4-3 going into the ninth.

Zach Maxwell worked a quick top of the ninth, giving the Bats a chance in the bottom of the inning, still down 4-3. Edwin Rios stepped up, shooting a high fly ball down the left field line off Isaac Mattson (W, 2-0) that clanged off the foul pole for his third home run of the season, knotting the game 4-4, a score that carried into extra innings.

Indianapolis strung together three hits in the top of the 10th, putting two runs on the board off Alan Busenitz (L, 1-2) to give Mattson his second chance to close out the game in the bottom of the inning in a 6-4 ballgame. Hinds led off the inning with his second hit off the bench to once again bring the Bats within a run. Louisville fell short, failing to bring home the tying run and dropping the series finale, 6-5.

Johnson and Rios both blasted their third home runs of the season to the opposite field, while Hinds and Callihan both recorded two-hit efforts in the loss.

The Bats (8-7) will be back in action on Tuesday as they travel to Columbus to take on the Clippers in a six-game series. First pitch for Tuesday’s series opener is set for 6:15 p.m. ET., and Nick Curran will be on the call for Sports Talk 790.