LOUISVILLE, KY. – The Omaha Storm Chasers (5-8/38-49) dropped the series opener to the Louisville Bats (5-7/44-41) by a score of 5-4 on Tuesday night. Omaha starter Mitch Spence struck out a season-high 7 over 4.2 innings of work and the Storm Chasers brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the 9th but fell just short.
The Chasers were first onto the scoreboard in the top of the 1st inning, with back-to-back singles from Matthew Lugo and Vinnie Pasquantino, for an early 1-0 Omaha lead.
Spence surrendered a 2-run homer to Héctor Rodríguez in the bottom of the 1st inning, but the Storm Chasers quickly countered in the top of the 2nd, on a 2-run homer from Gavin Cross for a 3-2 lead.
Spence retired 5 straight between the 1st and 2nd innings, including a perfect 2nd, and Omaha led into the bottom of the 3rd, before Spence surrendered another home run to Rodríguez that tied the score 3-3 after 3 innings.
Omaha’s starter worked around a single in the 4th and pitched into the 5th, before being relieved by Dan Altavilla, who stranded two runners on to end the 5th. Génesis Cabrera took over for Omaha in the 6th and allowed a pair of runs to cross on a pair of walks, an RBI single and a wild pitch, giving the Bats a 5-3 lead through 6 innings.
Lugo connected for an RBI single in the 7th, bringing the score to 5-4 but Omaha could not scratch across another run in the final 3 innings. Scott Barlow worked out of a bases-loaded jam for a scoreless bottom of the 7th and Anthony Gose fired a 1-2-3 8th inning.
Luca Tresh walked to open the 9th but could not come around to score, with Omaha falling by one run.
The Storm Chasers return to action in Louisville Wednesday with a 5:35 p.m. CT first pitch and Mason Black scheduled to start for Omaha.