The Louisville Bats established a quick lead and controlled the Omaha Storm Chasers 5-1 in the second game of the six-game series on Wednesday night at Werner Park. The Bats pitching staff held a shutout until the ninth inning, while Julian Garcia earned his first Bats win.
The Bats looked to deal damage early, loading the bases with no outs in the first. However, a Noelvi Marte strikeout followed by a double play on a grounder from Michael Toglia let the Storm Chasers off the hook. Chase Petty made the start and turned in two solid innings for the Bats to keep the game deadlocked, striking out four batters while allowing just one hit.
The top of the order got things off to a good start once again in the third, with Blake Dunn reaching on a bunt and Hector Rodriguez moving him to third on a single. Marte plated Dunn for the first run of the game for the Bats, reaching on a fielder’s choice while Omaha’s third baseman, Tyler Tolbert, recorded an error on the attempted putout at second.
With Rodriguez at third, Toglia crossed the second run with a sacrifice fly out to left field. Michael Chavis joined the party shortly after by flying a double to left field to give the Bats a 3-0 lead. From that point on, though, offense would be hard to come by for the Bats, as they would only record one hit until the ninth inning.
Petty lost some of his command in the third, surrendering a leadoff single and walking the next batter. He forced a flyout for his first out but was pulled by Louisville manager Pat Kelly immediately afterward. Petty finished his outing after 62 pitches, recording 2.1 innings and four strikeouts while allowing two hits and three walks.
Julian Garcia (W, 1-0) relieved Petty in hopes of getting the Bats out of the inning clean. He did so, striking out his first batter and inducing a fly out to end the inning.
With the Bats slowing down on offense, Garcia was tasked with holding things down through the next few innings. He did so easily in the fourth, but had to battle through a walk and a single to open the fifth. Despite the effort from Omaha, Garcia finished off the next three batters to complete his outing with 2.2 scoreless innings, three strikeouts and two walks.
Anthony Misiewicz and Tejay Antone helped back up Garcia, each tossing a scoreless inning in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. Antone had to deal with runners on second and third with two outs, but fanned his second batter of the inning to record the final out. With Trevor Kuncl on the bump in the eighth, Rodriguez recorded all three putouts in left field to keep the lead for the Bats.
Between the fourth and ninth innings, the Storm Chasers retired 14 straight Bats to limit any insurance runs. With one out in the ninth, Ivan Johnson broke the streak in a big way, flying a solo home run to left field to add a run. Edwin Arroyo tacked on another run, scoring Will Banfield on an RBI double to extend the lead to 5-0.
Yunior Marte took the bump to preserve the shutout, but immediately let up a triple to Gavin Cross in the first at-bat of the inning. A subsequent sacrifice fly by Dustin Dickerson was all Omaha needed to plate their first run of the game and eliminate the chance of Louisville’s third shutout of the season. Marte let up two walks, but also recorded two strikeouts to help secure the 5-1 win.
Dunn had a solid 3-5 night from the plate and scored one of the Bats’ runs, while Arroyo, Rodriguez, and Johnson each recorded two hits from the dish. Noelvi Marte lost both his eleven-game hitting streak and six-game stolen base streak tonight, but did score one of the Bats’ runs.
The Bats (18-11) continue their road trip to face off against the Omaha Storm Chasers (12-16) on Thursday evening. First pitch is set for 7:35 p.m. EST at Werner Park. Nick Curran will be on the call for Sports Talk 790-AM.