Louisville Bats Notes: April 23

LOUISVILLE WELCOMES CHARLOTTE: The Louisville Bats and Charlotte Knights will meet for a three-game series at Louisville Slugger Field. Last season, the two out-of-division foes squared off 10 times, with Charlotte going 7-3 against LOU, including 6-1 at Louisville Slugger Field. The Knights swept the Bats in 4 games in Louisville from May 11-14, the only time over the past 2 full seasons (2016-17) that LOU has been swept in a four-gamer at LSF. In the two teams' last meeting, the Bats won 5-4 in their final game before the All-Star Break on a walk-off single hit by Phillip Ervin that capped a three-run ninth by Louisville to overcome a 4-2 deficit.

SEE YA, SYRACUSE: The Bats and Syracuse Chiefs wrapped up a three-game series on Sunday, with Syracuse taking two of three from Louisville. In yesterday's 3-2 loss, LOU played in its first-ever home extra innings game under the new International League rules set prior to the 2018 season. Right-hander Jimmy Herget allowed an unearned run in the top of the 10th, but the Bats failed to match the Chiefs, when Nick Senzel was thrown out trying to score on a ground ball hit to third base. The Bats have dropped two of their first three home series to begin the season, and three of their first four series overall. The team's lone series win came against the Colum­bus Clippers from April 9-11, taking two of three from their IL West rivals.
SCORING FIRST IS THE WORST: The Bats fell to 3-6 when scoring first in a ballgame since they dropped Sunday's contest after leading 2-0, ranking last in the league with a .333 winning percentage in games where they tack on the first run. Last season, the Bats also owned the league's worst record when scoring first: 38-27 with a .585 winning percentage.
RAVISHING ROSELL: Bats outfielder/infielder Rosell Herrera has proven to be an excellent minor league free agent signing for the Reds, appearing in several categories on the IL leaderboard coming into play Monday. His .604 slugging percentage and 9 extra-base hits both lead the IL, while his 29 total bases are tied for 2nd and trail only Gwinnett's Carlos Franco .
NICK SEVENZEL: Louisville has the #7 prospect in all of baseball (Baseball America) in infielder Nick Senzel. The 22-year-old is currently riding a 7-game hit streak, longest for a Bats player this season. Senzel, who was selected #2 overall in the 2016 MLB Draft, is the first Top 10 B-A prospect to appear in a Louisville uniform before making his MLB debut since LHP Aroldis Chapman in 2011, and the first position player since OF Jay Bruce in 2008.
SCHOFIELD NAMED INTERIM MANAGER: The Cincinnati Reds an­nounced Friday that Dick Schofield has been named interim manager for the Louisville Bats. Schofield, who was serving as Louisville's bench coach, replaces Pat Kelly , who managed the first 10 games of the 2018 season for Louisville, compiling a 4-6 record. Kelly was recently promoted to Major League bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds also announced Darren Bragg will take over Schofield's previous role as Louisville's bench coach. Bragg is in his 12th season in the organization and was in his 10th as outfield coordinator at the time of his transfer to Louisville.
BATS SET ATTENDANCE RECORD ON SATURDAY: The Bats wel­comed 14,658 fans to Louisville Slugger Field in Saturday's 8-5 victory over the Syracuse Chiefs for "Thunder at Slugger Day". Newly acquired right-hander Zach Neal got the win in his first game in a Louisville uniform, joining Zack Weiss (4/7) and Justin Nicolino (4/10) as pitchers to win in their LOU debuts this season. The record crowd broke the previous record of 14,331 fans set on April 23, 2016, also "Thunder at Slugger Day".