Louisville Shakes Off Ninth Inning Nashville Comeback, Wins 6-4

LOUISVILLE, KY- The Louisville Bats (58-89) fought off the Nashville Sounds (89-57) late comeback to win on Saturday afternoon at Louisville Slugger Field.

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The Louisville offense jumped to life early when Lorenzo Cedrola led off the bottom of the first inning with a base knock. Reds’ rehabbing backstop Aramis Garcia followed Cedrola and put the Bats on the board, launching his first homer with Louisville to left center field onto the grassy berm.

Third baseman Leonardo Rivas tacked on one more for Louisville in the frame, notching an RBI-single to right field that just barely evaded the glove of Nashville first baseman Weston Wilson to give the Bats a 3-0 lead.

Nashville got a run back in the following half-inning when shortstop Cam Devanney hit his third home run of the season to straight away center field.

In the bottom of the third, Louisville tacked onto their lead further, thanks to a three-run homer from Michael Papierski to give the Bats a 6-1 advantage.

Louisville starter Ben Lively (2-5, 4.09) had another great outing working 4.1 innings and mimicking his most recent start, allowing one run on five hits, while whiffing three.

Lively ran into trouble in the fifth inning, forcing Louisville manager Pat Kelly to make a mid-inning pitching change for Kyle Dowdy. With one out and runners on the corners, Dowdy entered and was able to diffuse the Nashville threat, striking out Esteury Ruiz and inducing a ground ball to end the inning.

Usual starter Randy Wynne (6-11, 4.75) entered the game in the sixth inning and held the Sounds to just one hit with a pair of strikeouts to earn his sixth win of the season.

Showing a penchant for high drama, Nashville saved their comeback effort for the top of the ninth inning. Following a strikeout to start the ninth, the Sounds collected back-to-back doubles from Cam Devanney and Weston Wilson to plate their first run since the second inning. A walk and a single loaded the bases for the Sounds, and Louisville manager Pat Kelly then dipped into the bullpen once again, this time for fireballer Ricky Karcher.

Karcher surrendered a bloop base hit into right field and the Sounds went station-to-station, trimming the Louisville lead to 6-3. A fielder’s choice ground out almost ended the game with an unorthodox 4-6-5 double play, but the runner was ruled safe at third and allowed another run in. A pop-out to second base ended the game with Louisville coming away with the 6-4 win.

Following tomorrow’s off day, Louisville will head to Gwinnett to take on the Stipers for a three game series, the final series of the season. Game one of the series will be Monday, September 26, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m.