It was a wild one Tuesday night at Louisville Slugger Field as the Louisville Bats, who never led, fell 9-7 to the Toledo Mud Hens in ten innings.
Louisville battled the whole night and looked done with two outs in the ninth. After a run scoring ground out by Neftali Soto, Daryl Jones was hit by a pitch and Paul Janish reached on an error. Felix Perez singled home Jones and Dioner Navarro singled home Janish to tie the game at six runs apiece.
But Toledo came right back in the tenth to retake control. After an Omar Santos single, Quinten Berry smashed a double to left field to give the Mud Hens a 7-6 lead. After Eric Patterson grounded out, the Bats decided to intentionally walk Ryan Strieby to set up the double play. Problem was, that brought Brad Eldred to the plate. Eldred, who has hit safely in all twelve games this season, lined a base hit to center giving the Mud Hens an 8-6 cushion. Bats pitcher Scott Carroll walked the next two batters for Toledo’s ninth run.
The Bats would not die, though. Kritopher Negron walked and Chris Valaika doubled to start the bottom of the tenth. Negron scored on a fielder’s choice by Denis Phipps and the next batter, Danny Dorn, was hit by a pitch putting the winning run at the plate. But, Neftali Soto grounded into a double play ending the game.
The Bats were playing catch-up the entire night as Toledo jumped out to a 2-0 lead, on Eldred’s double and Young’s sacrifice fly, before Louisville even came to the plate.
Louisville came back with a solo home run from Soto in the second and an RBI fielder’s choice from Phipps in the third to tie it.
A run scoring single from Danny Worth allowed Toledo to regain the lead in the fifth. They extended the lead in the seventh on an RBI double from Young. That made it 4-2. Louisville cut it to 4-3 on an RBI single from Navarro in eighth.
Toledo again pushed the Bats back in the top of the ninth with a two-run single from Argenis Diaz making it 6-3 and setting up the wild finish.
Toledo benefited from two terrific defensive plays late in the game; a diving catch by Young to end the seventh, and a sprinting catch made by Berry to end the eighth. Berry’s grab robbed Chris Valaika of a three-run double that would’ve given the Bats the lead.
There was some silver lining for the Bats. Dioner Navarro, who did not have a hit going into the homestand, was 4-for-4 Tuesday night after a 3-for-3 performance the night before. Chris Valaika was also 3-for-3 Tuesday. As a team, Louisville went 13-for-40, raising their team batting average on the season to .225. The Bats’ on-base percentage also rose above .300 (at .305) for the first time this season.
The two teams will meet Wednesday night at 6:05 for game two of the four game series. The Bats send Chad Reineke (0-0, 4.22 ERA) to the bump against Andy Oliver (0-1, 2.79 ERA).
