Clippers erupt for seven-run second inning to split doubleheader with Bats

Milan Tolentino turned Star Wars Night into a blast-off at Huntington Park, clearing the bases with a second-inning grand slam that flipped the Columbus Clippers’ doubleheader with the Louisville Bats and set up a 7-3 win in the nightcap.

Columbus had already dropped the opener 5-0, but the second game never had a chance to settle in. The Clippers scored all seven of their runs in the second inning, turning a split into the kind of momentum swing that can change the tone of a six-game series. Kahlil Watson followed Tolentino’s shot with a two-run homer to center field, and Louisville was buried before it could recover.

The setting amplified it. More than 9,100 fans packed Huntington Park, a 10,100-seat ballpark in Columbus’s Arena District, for a doubleheader that was originally needed because Friday’s game was postponed. Game two started about 30 minutes after the opener, fireworks were still on the schedule after the nightcap, and the themed crowd got the inning that made the whole night feel bigger than a routine split.

Tolentino was the swing that made it happen. The 24-year-old Columbus second baseman, a 2020 fourth-round pick by Cleveland out of Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Mission Viejo, California, came in batting .234 with six home runs and 22 RBIs. The grand slam was his seventh homer of the season, a reminder that his best tool is still the kind of power that can change a game in one cut. In a series where the Clippers and Bats were already locked into the “Battle for I-71,” that one swing changed the emotional temperature of the weekend.

Ryan Webb made sure the lead held. He worked 5.2 innings and picked up his first win of the season for Columbus, giving the Clippers the stabilizing start they needed after being blanked in the opener. Louisville never got close enough to make the second inning look fragile, which is what made the nightcap feel so one-sided once the barrage started.

Columbus improved to 26-24, while Louisville fell to 28-22. After the Bats opened the series with a 5-4 win on May 19, the Clippers needed a response that felt authoritative, and they got one in the span of a single inning. The first game was a loss; the second was the kind of power display that can hang over a series long after the fireworks end.