Waters Homers in the 10th to Lift Omaha over Louisville, 4-2

LOUISVILLE, KY- The Louisville Bats (48-66) suffered their first loss of the series with the Omaha Storm Chasers (53-60) in extra innings on Thursday night at Louisville Slugger Field.

[BOX SCORE]

The Bats wasted little time and claimed the lead in the bottom of the first when Spencer Steer sent his third home run as a Bat and his 15th home run of the season into the glove of a fan on the grassy berm in left center field. Steer has now reached base safely in each of his 13 games since joining the club on August 4, and is riding a 27-game on base streak including his time with St. Paul, the longest active streak in the International League.

Louisville added to its lead in the following at-bat when Cristian Santana duplicated the feat, launching his sixth home run of the season to nearly the same spot, giving the Bats an early 2-0 lead. The long ball marked the fourth time this season that the Bats have hit back-to-back home runs and the first time since Alejo Lopez, Taylor Motter, and Stuart Fairchild went back-to-back-to-back on June 28 against the Iowa Cubs.

Omaha scratched a run of their own in the top of the third when Drew Waters and Maikel Garcia delivered a pair of back-to-back, two-out doubles to shave the Louisville lead to 2-1.

Louisville starter Justin Nicolino (3-4, 5.27) continued his recent string of solid outings, working 5.2 innings, scattering five hits while surrendering a lone run, and punching out four with a pair of walks.

Omaha shortstop Maikel Garcia led off the top of the eighth inning with a base hit and stole second to move into scoring position. Following a fly out to left, Brewer Hicklen capitalized on the one-out baserunner, notching his first hit of the ball game and scoring Garcia to knot the game at 2-2. The contest would need extra innings in order to be resolved.

Drew Waters led off the top of the tenth inning with the automatic baserunner at second base. He worked Louisville reliever Dauri Moreta to a full count before delivering his 12th home run of the season into the Miller Time Taphouse in right center field, giving the Storm Chasers their first and final lead of the game at 4-2. Louisville went down in order in the home half to end the game.

Game four of the six game series will be tomorrow night (August 19) at Louisville Slugger Field with first pitch slated for 7:05 p.m. Right-hander Deck McGuire (2-2, 6.70) is set to get the start for the Bats while southpaw Austin Cox (4-7, 4.47) will get the nod for the Storm Chasers.