The Louisville Bats battled back from three separate one-run deficits Tuesday night but it was all for not as they fell to the Durham Bulls 5-4 in ten innings.
With a runner at third and two outs in the tenth, the Bats decided to pitch to Jesus Feliciano, who already had a two-run double in the game. On an 0-2 pitch from Josh Judy, Feliciano ripped a base hit into left field scoring Shawn O’Malley and the game-winning run. Feliciano finished the game 3-for-5 with three runs batted in.
The Bats seemingly trailed the entire game but finally took their first lead in the eighth on Mike Costanzo’s RBI single that scored Denis Phipps.
It was a short lived lead, however as Durham came right back in the eighth with Feliciano’s double. Kristopher Negron then pounded a home run to left in the top of the ninth to tie the game for the fourth time and send it to extra innings.
Once again, the Bats were behind the eight ball early when Durham’s Kyle Hudson doubled home O’Malley with two outs in the second for the first run of the game.
The Bats responded an inning later when Negron tripled and scored on Chris Valaika’s groundout.
Durham pulled ahead in the fifth when Leslie Anderson doubled home Stephen Vogt. Louisville battled back again one inning later when Danny Dorn belted his fifth home run of the season.
Louisville dropped to 9-17 on the season as Durham improved to 8-18. The Bats are a season worst eight games under the .500 mark and dropped to 0-3 in extra innings and 2-14 when their opponent scores first.
The Bats had another good offensive game with eight of the nine position players recording at least one hit and four players (Negron, Phipps, Neftali Soto, and Felix Perez) recording multi-hit games. The Bats’ bullpen, which has been struggling in the clutch lately, blew its fifth save in 11 opportunities.
The teams have a quick turnaround Wednesday with a scheduled first pitch time of 11:05 a.m. Jeff Francis (2-2, 3.30 ERA) looks to continue his string of impressive starts against Jim Puduch (0-0, 3.00 ERA). It is the eighth game of a 12 game road trip for the Bats in which they are 2-5.