On Friday, both teams got to the starting pitchers early, but the Hens’ bullpen really won this game by locking down Indy the rest of the way while the offense lit up their bullpen.
The Hens struck first when Akil Baddoo and Dillon Dingler led off the second innings with singles and rode home on a Bligh Madris double. With one out, Andrew Navigato singled Madris over to third and Parker Meadows smoked a double off the wall in center field to make it 3-0. They missed adding on when Justyn-Henry Malloy struck out and Jace Jung smoked a drive out to center field for the final out.
Lefty Bryan Sammons got the start for the Mud Hens and he leaked a run in the bottom half of the inning but managed to limit the damage with a pair of strikeouts with the bases loaded. A single and hit by pitch in the bottom of the third led to two more runs as Indy tied it 3-3.
The starters were out of the game in the fourth inning, and the Hens took over. Madris singled and Buddy Kennedy doubled to start the fourth. Meadows lifted a sac fly to score Madris, giving the Hens a 4-3 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Jace Jung bashed his seventh homer to lead off the fifth. Meadows singled and stole second in the sixth but was stranded. In the seventh, Akil Baddoo hit his fifth home run to make it 6-3. Meadows walked and scored on a Malloy double in the eighth. They added one more in the ninth.
