Indians Control The Bats In 5-0 Shutout

The Louisville Bats were stymied at the plate on Wednesday morning, recording just two hits in a 5-0 shutout loss against the Indianapolis Indians at Victory Field.

Once again, the Bats threatened Indians starter Noah Davis (W, 1-0) early on, but failed to capitalize on the early opportunity. Edwin Arroyo reached third on a Michael Chavis single with two outs, but JJ Bleday struck out to end the inning. Dayne Leonard recorded his first Triple-A hit in the second, hitting a hard grounder past the glove of former Bat Tyler Callihan that reached left field. Despite his first hit, the Bats stranded him in the top half of the inning.

Julian Aguiar (L, 0-1) made his third start of the season on Wednesday morning and looked comfortable on the bump. Despite giving up a single to Callihan to begin his outing, Aguiar retired the next three batters to end the first. He continued to battle through some adversity in the second by forcing three groundouts after walking two batters. Aguiar worked through a clean inning in the third, retiring three straight batters with two strikeouts.

The Bats struggled to generate offense against Davis after a good start, going 1-2-3 in both the third and fourth innings. The Indians took advantage of Louisville’s slow start, plating their first run off former Bat Davis Wendzel's RBI double to left field in the fourth with two outs. Nick Simillo followed suit with a two-RBI single, plating Wendzel and Termarr Johnson to give Indianapolis a 3-0 lead.

Davis resumed his command over the Bats' offense, holding them scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings with two strikeouts. Sam Benschoter relieved Aguiar in the fifth, ending his line at 4.0 innings with three runs on three hits, three walks, and six strikeouts.

Benschoter forced two quick outs from the Indians to begin his outing, but surrendered a single to Ronny Simon. Esmerlyn Valdez leveraged his opportunity, muscling a high changeup out to right field for the first home run of the series. Indianapolis moved two more runners in scoring position, but Benschoter forced a flyout to keep the score 5-0.

Davis was relieved by Evan Sisk in the seventh, ending his impressive start at 6.0 innings with two hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts. Sisk fanned two Bats in another clean inning for the Indians. Mike Clevinger and Brandon Bidois each tossed scoreless outings following Sisk to preserve the shutout.

The Bats (5-6) continue their six-game series against the Indians (3-8) on Thursday night, with the first pitch set for 6:05 p.m. at Victory Field. Nick Curran will have the call on Sports Talk 790 AM.