Bats even series, defeat Iron Pigs 7-3

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Neftali Soto and Rey Navarro provided an offensive spark that ignited the Louisville Bats over Lehigh Valley 7-3 on Friday night at Louisville Slugger Field.

After giving up an early 2-0 deficit in the top of the first, the Bats evened the score at two apiece off back-to-back doubles from Soto and Navarro. Navarro, who recently snapped a team-high 16-game hitting streak, is batting .311 (23-for-74) with eight doubles, two homeruns and 12 RBI since being called up from Pensacola on June 18.

The tie held until the bottom of the fourth inning when Bryan Anderson broke the game open, belting a double into the left field gap and scoring Soto, Navarro and Thomas Neal to give Louisville the 5-2 lead.

Doubling to start the tie-breaking inning and going 2-for-5 on the night, Soto has now recorded multi-hit games in five of his last nine starts and has totaled seven RBI in his last six games.

The Bats extended their lead to 7-3 in the bottom of the eighth when Felix Perez tripled, scoring Tucker Barnhart and Ruben Gotay. He has now driven in 53 runs on the season, good for fourth in the International League. The 2014 IL All-Star is hitting .297 on the season with 21 doubles, three triples and 10 homeruns.

Making his first start of the season, Louisville right-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith pitched three innings but did not factor into the no decision. He allowed two runs (zero earned) on three hits with a walk and a pair of strikeouts.

Making his Louisville debut, right-hander Fabio Castillo (1-0, 0.00) was credited with the win, pitching two and two-thirds and allowing no runs on two hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

The Bats will look to win consecutive games tomorrow night at 6:05 p.m. when they send Chien-Ming Wang (8-5, 3.57) to the mound to be opposed by left-hander Greg Smith (7-6, 3.81) at Louisville Slugger Field.