Mud Hens Bump Bats, Take Finale 7-2

Louisville, KY - The Louisville Bats saw their three-game winning streak come to a halt on Sunday evening at Louisville Slugger Field. 7,381 fans were in attendance to witness the Toledo Mud Hens take down the Bats 7-2. Toledo was fueled by a three-run third inning off of Bats' starter Sam LeCure.

LeCure (9-6, 4.24) took the loss for the Bats, snapping his career-high seven-game winning streak. The streak began on June 9th versus Lehigh Valley. On the night, it took LeCure 92 pitches to get through four innings, in which he allowed four runs on six hits. He also struck out four batters.

The Mud Hens struck first in tonight's game, putting a three-spot on the board in the top of the third inning. With Brent Clevlen on first base, courtesy of a walk, Dusty Ryan laced a grounder up the middle, to the left-side of the second base bag. Shortstop Chris Valaika dove to his left, stopped the ball, but his throw to first base was a touch too late, allowing Ryan to reach. After Wilkin Ramirez flew out to center field, Scott Sizemore doubled down the left field line. Left fielder Danny Dorn had trouble fielding the ball off the wall and two runs scored. Don Kelly followed with an RBI-single, scoring Sizemore from second to give Toledo a 3-0 advantage.

Toledo tacked on another run in the fourth, thanks in part to Ryan's run-producing single. The hit scored Jeff Frazier from second base. Frazier and Clevlen began the inning with a pair of singles.

Danny Dorn finally got the Bats going in the home-half of the fifth inning. Dorn hit a double to left-center that raced all the way to the wall, allowing Wes Bankston to score and cut the deficit to 4-1. Bankston reached on a single to start the rally.

To answer the Bats' run, the Mud Hens scored insurance runs in the seventh and eigth innings. In the seventh, leadoff batter Wilkin Ramirez blasted a 382-foot bomb off of Bats' reliever Sean Watson. Then, in the eighth, Clevlen reached base on a double and was driven in on a double by Brent Dlugach. After reliever Lee Tabor managed to retire the next two batters, he allowed a walk to Sizemore and another double to Don Kelly. The Kelly double, the third of the inning by the Mud Hens, scored Dlugach and extended the Toledo lead to 7-1.

Louisville was able to score another run in the ninth to yield the final score of 7-2. Juan Francisco walked to lead off the inning against Mud Hens' reliever Casey Fien. After moving to second on a Chris Heisey ground out, Bankston brought Francisco home with a single, but the Bats could score no more.

Mud Hens' starter Nate Bump (6-1, 2.82) picked up the win. Bump danced through seven innings of play, throwing only 78 pitches on the evening. He allowed only one run on seven scattered hits, while striking out five batters.

Tomorrow evening, the Bats will begin a three-game series with the Indianapolos Indians, Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Probable pitchers for game one are LHP Travis Wood (2-1, 2.55) for Louisville against RHP Virgil Vasquez (7-2, 3.88) for Indy. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Come out to beautiful Louisville Slugger Field and enjoy Meijer Monday and baseball bingo.