IL1 Louisville Bats

Lavarnway Leads Louisville to 8-5 Win, Sweeping Clippers

Published on August 1, 2019 under International League (IL1)
Louisville Bats News Release


COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Louisville Bats (46-64) finished off their two-game sweep of the Columbus Clippers (61-48) on Thursday night, winning by an 8-5 score. Louisville catcher Ryan Lavarnway went 3-for-3 with two home runs in his first game with the Bats, less than two weeks after hitting two homers in his Cincinnati Reds debut.

After a thrilling, 11-inning victory for the Bats on Wednesday night at Huntington Park, the clubs provided quite the encore performance on Thursday. This time around, the Bats were the team to jump out to an early lead, scoring two runs in the second and four in the third to take a 6-0 lead. Lavarnway hit his first of two homers in the second, an opposite field bomb that scored Alex Blandino.

The next inning, Nick Longhi singled following a Brian O'Grady double, with Blandino knocking in a pair with a double. Lavarnway supplied yet another RBI in the third, with Longhi scoring on his sacrifice fly.

Louisville starting pitcher Sal Romano (4-7, 4.55) got off to a great start, but was removed following 2.0 scoreless innings after he was struck with a comeback line drive in what appeared to be the back of his right knee. Romano would stay in the game, impressively recording three straight outs, including two strikeouts, after the Ryan Flaherty line drive caused a stoppage in the game in the bottom of the second.

The Clippers would score five runs in the middle innings, all off Louisville left-hander Eric Stout, who threw 3.0 innings in relief of Romano. Yu Chang and Eric Haase each hit two-run jacks for the Clippers, but the five runs is all they would get on the night. The back-end trio of Louisville's bullpen, righties Justin Grimm, Jimmy Herget and R.J. Alaniz, shut the door in the final four innings to help the Bats secure their sixth win in their last seven games, sweeping Columbus to earn their second sweep over their last three series.

Brian O'Grady's 27th homer of the season put the Bats up 7-5 in the seventh, with Lavarnway's second homer of the night coming in the eighth inning to tack on the final insurance run in the 8-5 win. Lavarnway's multi-homer game extended the Bats' league-leading mark to 21 individual multi-homer games this season, and was the first for a Bats catcher since Devin Mesoraco did it in 2011.

Louisville heads home to begin a three-game weekend series tomorrow against the Toledo Mud Hens, with Friday first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. Right-hander Jesus Reyes (0-4, 5.33) will start for Louisville, expected to oppose Toledo right-hander Edwin Jackson (0-1, 10.12).

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International League Stories from August 1, 2019


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