Bats Beat Tribe 10-4
With the victory Louisville pushes their winning streak to six games and improves their record to 6-1, while the Tribe dropped to 1-6 with the loss.
Mesoraco, who went 2-for-5 in the winning effort, led his club to victory for the second night in a row after blasting an extra-inning walk-off home run last night against the Columbus Clippers, and driving in half of Louisville's ten runs versus the Tribe on Wednesday.
The Bats wasted little time to begin the scoring, plating five runs in the opening frame thanks to Mesoraco's two run single and a two-run home run from 1B Danny Dorn. After CF Dave Sappelt led off the game with a double, 3B Todd Frazier drew a two-out bases-on-balls and RF Jeremy Hermida was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Mesoraco then took advantage with his single while an Indians' defensive miscue allowed a third run to score on the play.
Two batters later, Dorn deposited a 2-0 pitch over the right field wall to push the Bats to an early 5-0 lead. Along with his two-run blast, Dorn also added a third inning single to maintain his .500 batting average (11-for-22), which ranks among the International League leaders.
The Tribe responded in the next half inning with back-to-back RBI singles from 1B Andy Marte and RF Andrew Lambo, followed by a solo home run to left by C Dusty Brown. Brown's blast was the second of the year for the Indianapolis backstop and brought the Indians with-in two.
All was quiet from that point until the sixth when Sappelt belted a two-run homer to right following a walk from 2B Chris Valaika to increase the Bats' lead to 7-3. Sappelt's shot was his first of the 2011 campaign and one of a team best three hits on the evening for speedy right hander, who also excelled at Victory Field last season compiling a .438 (14-for-29) batting average.
The center fielder's ninth inning base hit, which preceded a single by Frazier and a walk by Hermida, set the stage for Mesoraco, who cleared the bases with his double to the left field line to blow the game wide open at 10-3.
The Indians plated their final run in the ninth after CF Corey Wimberly singled, advanced to second and third on wild pitches and came home on 1B Matt Hague's sacrifice fly to right. Wimberly recorded a two hit game and a made a highlight reel catch in front of the center field wall on a deep fly by Louisville 1B Yonder Alonso.
Indians RHP Sean Gallagher (5.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) suffered the loss after surrendering five runs on six hits in his five innings of work to fall to 0-2 on the year, while RHP Matt Klinker (5.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) earned the victory to improve to 2-0 after giving up three earned runs on eight hits in his five frames of action.
Indians LF Alex Presley recorded a single to right in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to seven games to begin the year. The Louisiana native, who added another base knock in the fifth, came into the contest third in the International League in batting average (.500), hits (12) and on-base percentage (.538). RF Andrew Lambo and 1B Andy Marte also recorded multi-hit games, with Lambo tallying three hits and Marte two.
The Indians continue their three game series against the Bats Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. at Victory Field. RHP Chad Reineke is scheduled to start the series opener for Louisville, while Indianapolis is expected to counter with LHP Justin Wilson.
The contest will be carried on WNDE 1260 AM, WNDE.com and via iheartradio, a mobile application for iPhone, Blackberry and Android phones, while also being broadcast live on Comcast and Bright House Networks digital channel 81 with Howard Kellman and Scott McCauley on the call. The pre-game show begins at 6:45 p.m.
Post-game quotes -- C Dusty Brown
(on his fast start)
"I just try to slow everything down at the plate and stay relaxed. I kind of feel like I found a good approach and a comfortable stance. I'm just pretty comfortable right now."
(on playing at Victory Field)
"It's a nice field. It's a good ballpark to play in. It's always nice to play on a nice field because I've played in some dumps."
(on battling through the slow start)
"A day like today you just have to forget about it. You've got to just come out tomorrow and play. The first series with Columbus I thought for the most part we played well. We could've won any one of those games. We just have to keep battling and putting our work in and just make sure we get better every day."