Louisville Bats 6, Toledo Mud Hens 5 (box)
A bullpen game that goes into extra innings is typically a recipe for a loss, and Toledo couldn’t do much at the end of a 10-inning, 6-5 loss with a position player on the mound. The Louisville Bats now lead the Mud Hens, 3-2, in the six-game series.
Toledo used seven pitchers, including second baseman Riley Unroe in the 10th. RJ Petit threw two scoreless innings as the starter, followed by Paul Sewald in the third. Blake Dunn homered off Sewald, tying the game at one apiece. The Mud Hens scored in the bottom
of the second on a Kevin Newman single.
Wilkel Hernandez gave up the lead in the fourth. A leadoff single and two-run homer made it quick. Hernandez gave up another double before he recorded his first out, but he retired the next six batters in a row. Drew Sommers had the sixth. He walked a batter and gave up a double, both with one out, but stranded the runners at first and third.
Eduardo Valencia homered in the sixth to cut the deficit down to one. The Bats got the run right back off Sommers in the seventh, though — single, single, sacrifice bunt, sacrifice fly. That prompted another pitching change, with Dylan Smith taking over. He struck out the first two batters he faced, but still had to work around two baserunners in the eighth. Tanner Rainey went 1-2-3 in the ninth.
Toledo entered the bottom of the ninth trailing by a run. Hao-Yu Lee drove in Unroe in the bottom of the seventh. Unroe came up big again, with a game-tying solo home run in the ninth.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t get it done on the mound in the 10th. With the bullpen exhausted, Unroe was called on to pitch in extra innings. Rece Hinds hit a leadoff, two-run homer, which ended up being the deciding blow.
Valencia continued his torrid production in this one, driving in Lee on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th, but Toledo couldn’t find the second run to keep the game going.
Valencia: 1-4, HR (12), 1 R, 2 RBI
Unroe: 2-4, HR (4), 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 K
Lee: 1-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
Petit: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; 27 pitches (19 strikes)
Erie SeaWolves 3, Altoona Curve 2 (box)
Erie avoided extra innings on Saturday with a 3-2 walk-off win over Altoona, courtesy of Roberto Campos and John Peck.
Campos hit the walk-off single, but it was Peck’s one-out double that set it all up. He wound up on third and Altoona intentionally walked Josue Briceno and Justice Bigbie to see Campos with the bases loaded. He snuck it by the shortstop, who was playing in.
Austin Bergner gave up two runs over four innings before exiting the game. It wasn’t the worst day, with four hits and two walks. Five strikeouts from Bergner make the runs easier to swallow. Ryan Boyer went two scoreless innings in relief, and Tanner Kohlepp threw the seventh.
Kohlepp had to work through two hits, but he turned things over to Travis Kuhn still tied up at two. Kuhn gave up a pair of hits in the eighth, but he was 1-2-3 in the ninth.
Erie’s offense was limited all day. Before Campos and Peck delivered in the ninth, the SeaWolves had just four hits. Thayron Liranzo is responsible for two of those — a homer in the fourth and an RBI double in the seventh. Not a bad day for him. The other two hits were a Max Clark single, setting up Liranzo, and a Campos single early on that went nowhere.
Kevin McGonigle had the day off.
Liranzo: 2-4, R, 2 RBI, 2B, HR, 2 K
Campos: 2-4, RBI, K
Bergner: 4.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K
Championship series get underway on Sunday
RHP Preston Howey will get the start for the West Michigan Whitecaps as they take on the Cedar Rapids Kernels in Game 1 of the Midwest League championship at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday. Because home field advantage just rotates by division each year rather than being based on overall record, Game 2 and 3 if necessary will both be away games for the Whitecaps. That’s pretty rough considering their 92-39 record.
The Florida State League championship series will also get under on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. ET. The Lakeland Flying Tigers travel to Daytona to take on the Tortugas, with Game 2 and Game 3 if necessary at Publix Field on Tuesday and Wednesday with 6:30 p.m. ET start times.
