Bats Split Twin Bill with Clippers
April 12, 2024 - International League (IL)
Louisville Bats News Release
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky - In a pair of tightly contested contests, the Louisville Bats and Columbus Clippers each earned a victory in Friday's doubleheader at Louisville Slugger Field, continuing the trend of alternating wins through the series' first four games.
In the first game, the Bats struggled out of the gate. Lyon Richardson allowed three runs over two innings as the home team fell behind early. Louisville began the bottom of the second with back-to-back walks. Austin Wynns followed with a double to the wall in left, scoring Rece Hinds and Conner Capel to get the Bats within a run at 3-2.
Casey Legumina was first out of the Louisville bullpen and did well to keep the game close, allowing one run over two innings with a pair of strikeouts. Leading off the bottom of the fourth, Capel lined a solo homer to right that just cleared the wall for his fifth big fly of the season to make it a one-run game. Three hitters later, Wynns tied the game with a sacrifice fly for his third RBI of the game.
The battle of the bullpens began from there. Brooks Kriske pitched two scoreless innings for the Bats. Anthony Banda pitched 1.2 clean frames for Columbus. Tony Santillan and Anthony Gose each pitched a scoreless seventh, sending the game to extra innings.
Against new Bats reliever Alan Busenitz (L, 1-1), Columbus retook the lead in the eighth on a leadoff triple from Bryan Lavastida to score automatic runner Daniel Schneemann with the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the inning, Gose (W, 1-0) quickly retired the Bats in order to finish the 5-4 win for the visitors.
In the nightcap, the Bats wore vintage RiverBats jerseys to commemorate the 25th year at Louisville Slugger Field. Celebrating the 24th anniversary of the first game at the ballpark on April 12, 2000, the home team got off to a good start.
Randy Wynne was stellar in his first start of the season, firing four scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Clippers righty Connor Gillispie was equally as strong, striking out nine over five clean innings to keep the Bats off the board.
Stevie Branche (W, 1-0) was efficient out of the Bats bullpen, firing two clean innings with a pair of strikeouts to maintain the zero on the board. In the bottom of the sixth, the Louisville offense finally got the hits they desperately needed.
Erik Gonzalez singled to start the inning and stole second. A walk to Levi Jordan put two on with one out. Michael Trautwein then blooped a single into shallow right, allowing Gonzalez to come home with the first run of the game. Two hitters later, a sacrifice fly from P.J. Higgins plated Jordan to make it 2-0.
Michael Byrne (S, 1) wrapped up the Bats' first shutout of the season with a scoreless ninth inning, retiring all three hitters he faced to earn his first save of the year.
The Bats (6-7) continue their series against the Clippers (5-7) on Saturday night. First pitch at Louisville Slugger Field is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Nick Curran and Jim Kelch will be on the call for 1450/96.1 WXVW.
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