IL1 Indianapolis Indians

Indians Drop Heartbreaker to Louisville

July 2, 2007 - International League (IL1)
Indianapolis Indians News Release


INDIANAPOLIS -- First baseman Jesse Gutierrez lined a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth and Louisville hung on for a 1-0 win over Indianapolis in front of 9,158 Monday evening at Louisville Slugger Field.

The Bats improve to 45-39 on the season and 25-19 at home with their fifth straight win, while the Indians fall to 46-37 overall and 20-23 on the road. The Tribe, which sat atop the IL's West Division for 69 straight days earlier this season, continues to lead the Wild Card race by 1.5 games over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Louisville.

Gutierrez's third roundtripper of the campaign was all Louisville needed on this occasion. The 389-foot blast came on a 3-2 pitch with no outs in the home team's final at-bat and sailed just inside the left-field foul pole.

Bats RHP Jared Burton (2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 SO) tossed the eighth and ninth for the win in his first decision of 2007. Indians RHP Josh Sharpless (2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO) suffered the loss, falling to 1-2 on the year.

Neither starter -- Louisville LHP Bobby Livingston (7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO) or Indianapolis LHP Michael Tejera (6.0 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 SO) -- figured in the decision. Both southpaws escaped jams throughout the night as the clubs combined to leave 17 runners on base.

LF Jeff Keppinger paced the Bats with a 3-for-4 performance, while C Ryan Hannigan went 2-for-4 in the tilt. 3B Russ Johnson led the Indians with a 2-for-3 effort.

The Tribe's best chance to score came in the seventh when C Humberto Cota roped a single to left and Johnson hammered a double to the same spot, but Livingston recorded his only strikeout of the contest to strand both runners.

Louisville, which rolled to a 6-0 blanking of Columbus on Sunday night, picks up its first back-to-back shutout wins since June 2-3, 2006.

Indianapolis has won 17 of its last 21 home games, but has now dropped 12 of its past 14 road contests.

The two teams wrap up their brief two-game series on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. LHP Sean Burnett is scheduled to start for Indianapolis, while RHP Elizardo Ramirez is expected to get the nod for Louisville.

The contest will be carried by ESPN-950 AM and IndyIndians.com with Howard Kellman and Scott McCauley. The pre-game show begins at 6:45 p.m.

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