Bats Fall to Mud Hens, Split Final Road Series

The Louisville Bats dropped the series finale to the Toledo Mud Hens on Sunday afternoon, splitting their final road series of the 2025 season. The Bats struck first, but a four-run fourth by the Mud Hens was too much to overcome.

Louisville’s offense got off to a strong start in the first inning against Toledo starter Troy Watson (W, 4-1). Blake Dunn and Francisco Urbaez started off the ballgame with back-to-back singles, and after Watson bounced back with a pair of strikeouts, Ryan Vilade shot one into right that brought home Dunn to give the Bats a 1-0 lead. Urbaez was thrown out trying to stretch to third base.

The Mud Hens answered right back in the bottom of the first against Bats starter T.J. Sikkema (L, 2-1), with a pair of two-out doubles cashing in the first Toledo run of the day to tie the game.

The next couple of innings went by without any scoring, until Toledo struck again in the bottom of the fourth. Sikkema recorded the first out of the frame before allowing three straight singles to make it 2-1 Mud Hens. Riley Unroe walked to bring up Hao-Yu Lee, who delivered the biggest hit of the afternoon, a bases-clearing triple over the head of Rece Hinds in center field to break the game open, with Toledo extending its lead to 5-1. Yosver Zulueta relieved Sikkema later in the inning.

Over the next few innings, the Bats chipped away at the Mud Hens pitching staff. P.J. Higgins picked up an RBI single in the top of the fifth, Vilade cracked a solo home run to left in the sixth, and Davis Wendzel pulled a solo shot of his own in the following inning. By the time the crowd rose to stretch, Louisville had shaved the deficit to just a single run.

Tejay Antone and Joel Valdez kept Toledo off the board in the seventh and eighth innings, and Tyler Mattison came on for the Mud Hens to try and close out the Bats in the top of the ninth. Louisville immediately applied pressure, putting the first two runners of the inning on base. Higgins’ sacrifice bunt attempt was stifled as Mattison bounced off the mound to field the ball, firing to third base to get the lead runner on the force. Dunn grounded into a force out for the second out of the inning before Francisco Urbaez flied out to right, sending the Bats back home with a series split with the Mud Hens.

The Bats (69-75, 37-32 second half) will return home for their final series of the season, a six-game set with the Nashville Sounds. First pitch for Tuesday’s opener is set for 6:35 p.m. ET with Nick Curran and Jim Kelch on the call for Sports Talk 790.