Balanced Bats Effort Lifts Louisville Over Omaha, 4–2

The Louisville Bats recovered from their heartbreaking loss on Friday and bounced back with a 4-2 win over the Omaha Storm Chasers on Saturday night at Louisville Slugger Field. Julian Aguiar (W, 2-4) turned in a quality outing for the Bats, while Carlos Jorge’s leadoff homer provided the lead early.

Aguiar graced the mound for Louisville, coming off some control issues in his last start against Columbus, where he walked a career-high seven batters in 2.1 innings. No issues made their way into this start, as he moved through the first swiftly with a clean inning.

Aguiar’s fine start paved the way for Jorge to give the Bats a quick advantage. After not starting the last two games and being retired as a pinch-hitter in the ninth on Friday night, Jorge flipped the switch and took the first pitch he saw over the right field wall for an early 1-0 lead for the Bats. It marked Jorge’s first home run as a Bat and his seventh of the year total.

Aguiar didn’t allow a baserunner until the third, when he gave up a double to Omaha with one out. Regardless, he fanned four batters while allowing the lone hit through the first three innings. After Sam Haggerty led off the bottom frame with a single and a stolen base, Jorge notched his second RBI of the night with a double.

Hector Rodriguez batted Jorge over on a ground out, leading to Will Benson plating another run on a bloop single to left field. Benson has continued his streak of reaching base in every Bats start he’s made, furthering the tally to eight games in a row. Louisville loaded the bases with two outs, but a fly out finally ended the frame with the Bats leading 3-0.

Unfortunately for Louisville, Aguiar’s clean outing didn’t last much longer. After he gave up a walk, Omaha placed their first two runs on the board with a two-run homer from John Rave. Rave was the culprit in Friday night’s crushing defeat as the go-ahead grand slam hitter in the ninth to steal a win from the Bats. Aguiar protected the lead and retired three straight after the big fly to keep the score 3-2.

Both teams seemed to hit a roadblock offensively as the innings went by. Aguiar gave Louisville their second consecutive quality start, protecting their lead into the sixth inning before getting pulled for Zach McCambley. Aguiar ended his stat line allowing two runs on two hits with a pair of walks and six strikeouts.

McCambley worked a scoreless seventh inning despite giving up a hit, in which the runner was caught stealing and thrown out by Will Banfield. He came back with a similar eighth, throwing for a strikeout in another empty inning for Omaha.

Banfield made his own impact at the plate and ended the dry spell for the Bats with a leadoff, first-pitch solo home run to give Louisville an insurance run. The Bats moved two runners into scoring position with one out, but couldn’t add any more damage and left the frame with a 4-2 lead.

Hunter Parks (SV, 5) appeared for his second attempt at a save in the series and converted quickly. He gave up one hit and ended the night on a strikeout to secure the win in only 12 pitches. Parks now stands alone as the Bats' active leader in saves.

Jorge and Haggerty each earned multi-hit performances on the night, with Haggerty notching his first as a Bat. Jorge also broke a five-game hitting skid in the process of powering his first Triple-A homer at Louisville Slugger Field.

The Bats will wrap up their series against the Storm Chasers on Sunday afternoon, with first pitch set for 1:05 p.m. ET at Louisville Slugger Field. Brandon Leibrandt (4-3, 4.42) takes the bump and will oppose Omaha right-hander Mitch Spence (1-4, 5.92). Nick Curran and Jim Kelch will have the call on Sports Talk 790.