Bats Split Doubleheader with Indians on Wednesday
INDIANAPOLIS, IN. – Louisville and Indianapolis split Wednesday’s two-game slate as the Indians walked off game one, winning 4-3. Eric Yang and TJ Friedl powered the Bats offense in game two as four Louisville hitters tallied multi-hit games en route to a 9-6 win at Victory Field. [G1 Box Score]
INDIANAPOLIS, IN. – Louisville and Indianapolis split Wednesday’s two-game slate as the Indians walked off game one, winning 4-3. Eric Yang and TJ Friedl powered the Bats offense in game two as four Louisville hitters tallied multi-hit games en route to a 9-6 win at Victory Field.
The Bats jumped out in front early in game one of the doubleheader. After reaching base on a fielder’s choice, TJ Friedl moved to third on double by Colin Moran before coming in to score on a base-hit by Juniel Querecuto to take a 1-0 lead.
Indianapolis took the lead in the third, scoring two runs with two outs, highlighted by a solo home run to take a 2-1 lead. The Indians tacked on another run one inning later to extend their lead to 3-1 through four innings.
Louisville struck again in the top of the sixth to tie the game. Friedl put another run on the board after launching his seventh home run of the season, a solo shot deep to right field. Two batters later, Moran tallied his second extra-base hit of the game with a solo home run of his own to even the score 3-3.
Bats reliever Kyle Dowdy (1-2, 5.23) came on in the sixth and struck out three of the four batters he faced to keep the game tied going into the seventh inning. Dowdy’s inning marked his 500th career inning pitched in Minor League Baseball.
Matt Pidich (4-3, 4.94) came on in the seventh and struck out the first two batters he saw before surrendering three straight hits as Indianapolis won in walk-off fashion for the second straight game, topping Louisville 4-3 in game one of the doubleheader.
Once again, the Bats plated a run first, this time in the top of the second inning. After a pop-out to start the inning, Ronnie Dawson and Isiah Gilliam tallied back-to-back hits, a single for Dawson and a double for Gilliam, to get two runners in scoring position. In the next at-bat, Eric Yang tallied his first Triple-A hit, a double to left field, to bring both runs home and give Louisville the 2-0 lead.
The Indians tallied a single run in each of their next two at-bats, highlighted by a solo home run in the bottom of the second, to even the score 2-2 through three innings.
Louisville scored again in the top of the fourth as Yang drove in Dawson for the second time of the game, followed by an RBI sac fly off the bat of Alejo Lopez to score Gilliam and extend the Bats lead to 4-2.
Indianapolis answered in the bottom half of the inning, scoring two runs to take its first lead of game two at 5-4.
The Bats didn’t stay down long, putting up a four spot in the top of the fifth. Juniel Querecuto doubled with one out, followed by a walk from Dawson before a fielding mishap on a fielder’s choice play allowed Querecuto to score and tie the game at 5-5. Two batters later, TJ Friedl smacked his second home run of the day, a three-run shot to right field to give Louisville an 8-5 lead through five innings.
Indianapolis scratched another run across in the home half of the fifth, but that’s all they would get as the Bats added on one more run in the top of the seventh to take game two of the doubleheader 9-6.
Friedl tallied four RBI to tie his season high as he went 2-for-3 at the dish with a home run. Yang went 3-for-4 with a double with Dawson and Gilliam adding two hits each and combined for seven runs scored.
Louisville and Indianapolis will continue the extended seven-game series with game four tomorrow night, with first pitch set for 7:05 pm E.T. Right-hander Randy Wynne (4-10, 4.82) will take the bump for the Bats, taking on fellow righty Osvaldo Bido (1-6, 5.45) who will get the ball for the Indians.