Davidson Deals to Shut Out Bats

GWINNETT, Ga. - A night after Louisville silenced the home crowd with a combined shutout, starter Tucker Davidson and the Gwinnett Stripers (6-2) bullpen returned the favor, blanking the Louisville Bats (2-5) 5-0 at Coolray Field on Wednesday night.

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Gwinnett got on the board first in the bottom of the second inning, scoring on a wild pitch from Louisville starter Tony Santillan that scooted up the first-base line to bring home Travis Snider. Despite another impressive outing, the lone blemish would be enough to charge Santillan with his first loss of the year after he gave up three hits, two walks, and struck out six batters over 4.0 innings of work.

Santillan has now allowed just one earned run with 13 strikeouts over 8.0 innings through his first two career Triple-A starts.

The Stripers tacked on four more runs through the contest, including a pinch-hit homer from Travis Demeritte in the seventh frame.

The offense was more than enough for Gwinnett starter Davidson, who cruised through 7.0 shutout innings with just four hits and eight strikeouts. He improved to 2-0 on the year with a 0.64 ERA with the effort.

Louisville’s best threat came in the fifth when Alfredo Rodriguez doubled and Scott Heineman singled to push runners to the corners with two outs. The runners were ultimately standard, however, as Davidson escaped the frame with a punchout to continue rolling through his dominant outing.

The two teams will return to action tomorrow with a 7:05 p.m. first pitch. Louisville’s RHP Vladimir Gutierrez (1-0, 0.00) is set to make his second start of the season, while RHP Connor Johnstone (1-0, 0.00) is expected to take the mound for Gwinnett.