LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Indianapolis Indians scored in the first inning for the second consecutive night and never surrendered the lead in a 3-1 victory against the Louisville Bats on Friday night at Louisville Slugger Field. Indians starting pitcher Connor Wietgrefe retired the first nine Louisville hitters to begin Friday night’s outing and ended up tossing 6.2 innings. Wietgrefe surrendered five hits to go along with four strikeouts to improve his record to 4-3 this season.
The Indians (20-11, 51-55) struck first after Tyler Callihan walked in the first inning and scored off left fielder Johnathan Rodriguez’s grounder back to the pitcher to give Indy the 1-0 lead. Rodriguez finished the night going 1-for-4 at the dish with two runs batted in.
Louisville (10-21, 49-55) never threatened to erase the deficit early on Friday night as Wietgrefe recorded three of his four strikeouts in the first three innings of play. The Bats’ first hit of the evening came as Carlos Jorge led off the top of the fourth inning with a single.
Indy went up 2-0 in the fifth inning after Rodriguez singled to center field scoring Termarr Johnson, who walked to get on base at the start of the inning.
Insurance was added in the ninth inning when Johnson’s second hit of the evening was a deep fly ball to left field scoring Dominic Fletcher from third. Johnson was the only hitter for Indy with a multi-hit evening ending the night 2-for-4 at the plate. Fletcher concluded the evening going 1-for-3 with one walk as well.
For Louisville, Jorge led the Bats going 2-for-4 in the leadoff spot. Starting pitcher Jared Lyons (L, 1-3) was credited for the loss after going 5.1 IP giving up two earned runs and six walks, but only gave up three hits to Indy. The Bats bullpen allowed only three hits the rest of the evening.
The six-game series between Indianapolis and Louisville continues Saturday at 7:15 PM E