Louisville’s offense got hot quickly and never cooled in their 9-5 defeat of the Omaha Storm Chasers on Friday night at Werner Park.
The Bats entered Friday night leading the International League in batting average, hits, and runs, and immediately showed that pop. They loaded the bases in the first for Francisco Urbaez, who knocked in a run with a ground out to give Louisville an early 1-0 lead. Two batters later, Michael Chavis hit a two-run single with the bases loaded to boost the lead to 3-0.
The scoring continued in the third inning when Michael Toglia began the rally with a single and later scored on a single from Chavis to increase the lead to 4-0. Louisville really turned up the heat in the fourth inning. Edwin Arroyo tripled and scored on a fielder's choice hit by Hector Rodriguez to boost the score to 5-0.
Rodriguez then stole second base, Noelvi Marte walked, and the pair collectively stole second and third, which gave the Bats six stolen bases on the night, their most in a single game since April 21, 2013. Rodriguez scored on a Toglia single, which increased the lead to 6-0, and bumped the Storm Chasers starter out of the game. Urbaez met the Storm Chasers reliever with an RBI infield single to the shortstop, which gave the Bats a 7-0 lead.
Davis Daniel cruised through the first three innings and finally was roughed up in the fourth. He walked a batter, allowed a single, and a two-run double to close the lead to 7-2. Daniel faltered again when John Rave led off the sixth inning with a solo shot, but struck out the next three batters, which kept the score at 7-3.
The Bats got back on the board in the seventh after Will Banfield drove in a run to boost the lead to 8-3.
Hagen Danner entered in relief in the seventh to end Daniel's day. Daniel allowed three runs on four hits, walked one, and struck out seven over his quality start to earn his team-leading fourth win of the season. Danner threw a perfect seventh inning with a strikeout to start the bullpen right.
Rodriguez reached on an error to start the eighth and later scored on a Urbaez single to increase the Bats’ lead to 9-3.
Anthony Misiewicz threw a scoreless eighth inning with one walk, one hit, and a strikeout. Yunior Marte allowed a leadoff homer in the ninth. Luca Tresh doubled before Abraham Toro doubled him home to inch the Bats' lead to 9-5. Marte struck out the next two batters but walked Dustin Dickerson and was pulled in favor of Sam Benschoter (S, 1), who struck out John Rave to end the game and eanr his first save of the season.
All nine Bats batters recorded at least one hit in the win. Chavis finished with two hits and three RBI. Rodriguez and Toglia both knocked two hits and scored two runs. Daniel (W, 4-2) has allowed two runs or fewer in five of his seven starts this season.
The Louisville Bats (19-12) will face the Chasers (13-17) for the fifth game of the six-game set on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. Nick Lodolo will make his Triple-A debut in a rehab start for the Bats. Nick Curran will be on the call on Sports Talk 790.