Brant Hurter And The Hens Shine In 5-1 Victory Over Saints

May 9, 2024 – International League (IL)
Toledo Mud Hens News Release

While the weather had many wondering if this game would be played, things cleared up downtown just before the first pitch. Toledo and St. Paul had split their series a game a piece, but Thursday night’s 5-1 win gave Toledo the edge.

Brant Hurter had a hot start in his second start of the season on the mound. He sat down his first three batters with two strikeouts and a groundout.

On the offensive side of things, Jace Jung was the only Hen to find a hit in the first inning with his tenth double of the season. The game remained scoreless though as Keston Hiura went down swinging.

The Saints got to swinging to start the second inning. Alex Isola picked up a one-out double as his teammate Tony Kemp had a base hit to right field to Move Isola to third. The baserunners were left stranded though as Hurter picked up strikeouts against Patrick Winkel and Dalton Shuffield.

The Mud Hens seemed to figure out Saints pitcher Louie Varland in their second set of at bats. Bligh Madris found a gap in right field for his tenth double of the season and a wild pitch would move him to third. Justice Bigbie wasted no time bringing Madris home with an RBI triple off the wall. Toledo would finish the inning up 2-0 as Dillon Dingler hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Bigbie.

Hurter continued to work his way through the St. Paul lineup, earning his sixth and seventh strikeouts of the game. He did give the Saints a chance to score though as DaShawn Keirsey Jr. found a base hit and was able to move all the way to third base off of a pick-off attempt gone wrong by Hurter. It all worked out though as Hurter’s seventh strikeout kept the Saints scoreless.

The third inning began with Varland walking Gio Urshela and Jung to put the Hens in scoring position with no outs. Urshela is in Toledo on a rehab assignment from the Detroit Tigers. He would score off of a base hit from Madris that also moved Jung to third and brought Bigbie up to bat. Bigbie brought in both Jung and Madris with a base hit that found a gap in shallow center field, giving Toledo the early 5-0 lead.

The Mud Hens would protect that lead with a quick inning featuring another Hurter strikeout and a double play off the bat of Kemp to pick up the pseudo one, two, three.

The bats finally began to cool off for Toledo in the bottom of the fourth. Only Urshela found a base hit as Varland picked up three strikeouts. As Urshela ran to first base, his apparent…