Leibrandt leads Bats to shutout win before Clippers take nightcap

Brandon Leibrandt gave Louisville the kind of calm that can steady a clubhouse, and Lyon Richardson then showed how quickly Triple-A can turn on one inning.

The Louisville Bats left Huntington Park with a split of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Columbus Clippers, winning the opener 5-0 before dropping the nightcap 7-3 in front of 9,152 fans on Star Wars Night. For Louisville, the two games offered a sharp snapshot of life at this level: one clean, forceful win built on a veteran left-hander and timely power, followed by a loss in which a single bad stretch overwhelmed everything else.

Leibrandt, the 33-year-old left-hander in his first season with Louisville, was the story in game one. He worked 6.0 scoreless innings, allowed just two hits and struck out four, giving the Bats a low-stress start that never let Columbus settle in. The win was his second straight and moved him to 2-2 on the season. Anthony Misiewicz finished the shutout with the final inning, and Louisville’s offense made the margin comfortable early.

Noelvi Marte opened the scoring with a two-out homer in the third on a 3-0 pitch, a swing that set the tone for the rest of the afternoon. Austin Hendrick followed with his first Triple-A home run, a 391-foot shot over the scoreboard, a notable checkpoint in his climb. Michael Toglia added his 10th homer of the season, Hector Rodriguez drove in Dayne Leonard with a single, and Michael Chavis helped fuel the early traffic with a walk. The Bats did not need much more to control the opener.

The nightcap told the other side of the doubleheader. Columbus struck for two home runs in the second inning, including a three-run blast from Kahlil Tolentino and a solo shot from Kahlil Watson, and the Clippers kept pouring it on after that. Richardson lasted only 1.1 innings and was charged with seven runs, a crushing line for the right-hander who entered the day at 2-1 with a 3.29 ERA in 16 appearances. Ryan Webb got the win and improved to 1-4.

Louisville did show some fight. The Bats scored all three of their runs in the sixth, with Will Banfield delivering the big blow on a three-run homer. Edwin Arroyo, Hector Rodriguez, Noelvi Marte, Michael Toglia, Michael Chavis, Francisco Urbaez, Ivan Johnson and Cooper Hampson all appeared in the box score as Louisville finished with six hits and five walks, but the early deficit was too steep. Columbus finished with seven runs, seven hits and no errors, while Louisville was charged with two errors.

That split mattered because it captured both halves of Louisville’s immediate outlook: Leibrandt, Hendrick and Banfield gave the Bats evidence of pieces that can matter now, while Richardson’s short outing was a reminder that one unstable inning can still undo a day at Triple-A.