The Louisville Bats ended a frustrating four-game losing streak and won their tenth game of the season with an eleven inning, 4-3 victory Thursday night over the Durham Bulls.
Neftali Soto took the first pitch he saw from Cesar Ramos over the right field wall to give the Bats a 4-3 lead and eventually a win. It was Soto’s third home run of the season as he extended his hit streak to eight games.
The Bats improved their record to 10-18 and Durham fell to 9-19.
Louisville’s pitching shined bright Thursday night. Bats starter Sean Gallagher turned in another quality start as he went seven innings for a second consecutive outing. Gallagher gave up just three runs on five hits while walking two and striking out five.
Kanekoa Texiera relieved Gallagher and went an inning and two-thirds of scoreless baseball walking two and striking one.
Travis Webb, who got the win for the Bats, retired all six batters he faced, including a strike out of Kyle Hudson to end the ninth inning with the winning run at second.
Nick Christiani retired the only batter he faced in the eleventh to pick up the save.
The Bats’ bullpen combined to sit down 12 of the 15 Bulls they faced, including the final eight, to finish the game.
Louisville scored a run in each of the first three innings, mounting two separate leads. Danny Dorn’s RBI triple scored Kristopher Negron in the first and Bill Rhinehart singled home Mike Costanzo to give the Bats a 2-0 lead.
Durham’s Reed Brignac knotted the game at two with a two-run homer in the second. Louisville then jumped to a 3-2 lead when Denis Phipps blasted his third home run of the season. That lead didn’t last long as the Bulls came right back as Kyle Hudson scored on Leslie Anderson’s groundout to tie the game at three runs apiece.
Louisville had their opportunities in regulation but couldn’t get the job done. The Bats had the leadoff man on in four of the final five innings of regulation but could not push a fourth run across. The Bats finished 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
The Bats and Bulls hook up for the final of the four game series Friday. The Bats will send Ron Mahay to the mound and have a ‘bullpen-by-committee’ game. Chad Reineke’s start was pushed back to Saturday as Andrew Brackman is being moved to the bullpen. Mahay will be opposed Friday by Alex Cobb. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05.
