As the Louisville Bats struggle to reach .500 they began a difficult stretch of games against the best team in the International League this weekend in Indianapolis. After falling 5-3 on Saturday night they rallied with a 4-2 win on Sunday that evened the series.
Former Major League All-Star Jose Contreras earned the win Saturday, coming on for two innings of 1-hit relief for Andy Oliver with the scored tied at 3 in the 6th. The Bats fell behind 2-0 in the first inning before scoring three in the top of the fourth on RBI singles by Corky Miller and Daniel Corcino. The Indians tied the game with a run in the 6th and won after a Chase D’Arnaud 2-run homer in the 8th inning provided the final margin. Jose Arredondo dropped to 1-2 with the loss for Louisville.
Sunday, the Bats exacted revenge with two runs of their own in the first on a Neftali Soto single and Mike Hessman solo homerun. After the Indians added runs in the first and second to tie it the Bats came up with some late inning heroics of their own with an RBI single by Kristopher Negron and an RBI ground out by Hessman to provide the final margin. Pedro Villarreal improved to 2-5 on the year with the win, striking out 5 in six innings while allowing only 1 earned run.
The series continues tonight in Indianapolis before returning to Louisville for games Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday’s game is at 6:45 and Wednesday’s is at 7:05, both at Louisville Slugger Field. The Bats will return to Indianapolis to play one more game Thursday that starts an 8 game roadtrip to Columbus and Toledo.
Photo: Flickr/jwade817
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