An RBI single from Jared Goedert in the tenth capped a huge comeback and gave the Columbus Clippers a 5-4 walk-off win over the Louisville Bats Tuesday night. The Clippers overcame a 4-0 Bats lead after six innings to take their second straight victory over the Bats.
The Bats’ bullpen faltered late after a stellar start from Tim Gustafson. Gustafson, whose start was moved up a day because of the promotion of Todd Redmond to Cincinnati, pitched 5-1/3 innings of one hit, shutout baseball. After walking two batters in the sixth, Gustafson was lifted for Nick Christiani. Christiani walked the bases loaded before getting an inning ending double play to head to the seventh.
That’s when the comeback started. Christiani gave up back to back singles to Cord Phelps and Tim Fedroff to start the seventh. Chad Huffman followed that with a three-run home run to get the Clippers on the board and push Christiani out of the game.
After Travis Webb completed the seventh, Jordan Smith came in and tossed a scoreless eighth, giving the Bats a 4-3 lead headed to the ninth.
With one on and two outs, Bats first baseman Mike Costanzo misplayed a foul pop up off the bat of Luke Carlin that should’ve ended the game. Donnie Joseph eventually walked Carlin to bring up Gregorio Petit, who singled and scored Goedert from second to tie the game.
Goedert provided the heroics against Kanekoa Texiera in the tenth.
The Bats’ lead was built mostly on Columbus mishaps. With two outs in the first inning, Henry Rodriguez reached on a throwing error from Russ Canzler. The next batter, Neftali Soto, sent the first pitch he saw into the seats in left to give the Bats a 2-0 lead.
A leadoff solo home run from Corky Miller in the fifth made it 3-0. Then, in the sixth, Cord Phelps dropped the ball at second while trying to turn a double play, allowing Soto to score from third to make it 4-0. The Bats had a chance to add on to their lead but Miller grounded into a 5-3 double play to end the sixth.
The Bats fell to 4-6 on the season against the Clippers, including 1-5 at Huntington Park.
The teams hook up again for game three of the series Wednesday at 7:05. With the shakeup in the rotation, the Bats do not have an announced starter while the Clippers are scheduled to send Jenmar Gomez (2-1, 2.43 ERA) to the mound. The Bats (36-62) will be looking to avoid tying a season-low 27 games under the .500 mark.
