In baseball, it is often said offense comes in bunches. This held true for the Louisville Bats Thursday night. After scoring three runs over their previous 32 innings, they pounded out 13 hits and scored eight runs en route to a 8-2 beating of the Syracuse Chiefs. The win ended a four game losing streak.
Joey Gathright, Willie Harris, Neftali Soto, and Mike Costanzo (who was optioned back to Louisville from Cincinnati before the game after the Reds recalled Kristopher Negron) all had two hits while every position player had at least one hit.
Louisville got the starting the scoring started in the very first innings with a two-run single from Cody Puckett, who finished the game three RBIs.
A sacrifice fly from Puckett in the third and a run scoring double in the fourth made it 4-0 in favor of the Bats. A two-run single from Gathright in the sixth extended the lead to 6-0 before Bill Rhinehart hit a solo homer and Costanzo an RBI single in the ninth for the final margin.
The Bats got a quality outing from starter Sean Gallagher who went six innings giving up just one run on four hits while striking out three. Carlos Fisher and Jordan Smith combined to pitch the final three innings for the Bats.
Louisville improved to 19-43 on the season as they picked up their second win of June.
They look to win back to back games for the first time since May 19-20 Friday in the series finale against the Chiefs. The Bats have Ryan Feierebend on the mound against Mitch Adkins for the Chiefs. Feierbend will be making his Bats debut after spending the first part of the season in the Atlantic League. First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m.
