Jeff Locke pitched seven innings of four hit shutout baseball for the Indianapolis Indians Saturday night en route to a 4-0 victory over the Louisville Bats. Locke struck out five batters without walking one and allowed just two runners to reach scoring position while picking up his third win of the season.
For the second straight game, the Louisville offense fell silent as they failed to get an extra base hit. Louisville is now 10-20 on the season and has lost six of their last seven.
Bats starter Chad Reineke, whose record fell to 1-1, was touched for all four runs in the game. He gave up ten hits in five innings pitched. Carlos Fisher, Nick Chrisitiani, and Jordan Smith combined to pitch the final three innings scoreless for Louisville.
The Indians(15-13) jumped on Reineke early with three runs in the very first inning. After Jake Fox doubled in Gorkys Hernandez, Jordy Mercer ripped an RBI single to right field. Fox would score on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Boggs to make it 3-0. Indianpolis tacked on one more in the second with an RBI single from Hernandez.
After winning in extra innings on Thursday, the Bats have scored just one run on thirteen hits in their previous 18 innings. For the first time since their current 12 game road trip began on April 24, the Bats did not have a multi-hit performer in their lineup.
The two teams hook up for the second of a quick two game series Sunday afternoon. Brett Tomko (0-3, 3.51 ERA) will start for the Bats opposite Daniel Cabrera (0-0, 7.36 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. It is the final game of a 12 game, 13 day road trip for the Bats who return home Monday night against the Norfolk Tides.