Michael Trautwein hit a go-ahead grand slam in Chattanooga’s opening night win, Tyson Lewis hit his first home run of the season for Daytona, Nestor Lorant struck out seven and allowed just one run in his 2026 debut with Dayton, and Hector Rodriguez hit his first homer of the year with Louisville.
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The Louisville Bats lost 7-2. Box Score
Game Notes
For the third day in a row the Iowa Cubs beat up the Bats starting pitcher as they scored five runs in the 2nd inning to take a lead and never looked back.
Top Pitch Velocity: Luis Mey – 99.4 MPH (foul)
Top Exit Velocity: Christian Encarnacion-Strand – 109.5 MPH (home run)
Furthest Hit Baseball: Christian Encarnacion-Strand – 399 feet (home run)
The Chattanooga Lookouts won 8-6. Box Score
Game Notes
The game began with Carlos Jorge hitting a triple to the wall on the first pitch. Two pitches later Leo Balcazar hit a 2-run home run. Columbus then scored the next six runs of the game. The Lookouts picked up two runs in the 8th to make it 6-4. Then came the 9th inning when Chattanooga loaded the bases with just one out and Michael Trautwein unloaded them with an opposite field grand slam to put the Lookouts in front for good. He’s hit 20 home runs in his career and this was his first grand slam.
Leo Balcazar hit nine home runs with Dayton in the first half last season. He only hit three with Chattanooga after joining them at the middle of July and playing in 51 games with them. His home run in the 1st inning was an opposite field line drive over the wall in right-center.
Last year Carlos Jorge only had three hits in the first eight games in which he had an at-bat, going 3-20 to being the year in 2025 with Dayton. He got three hits on opening night this year.
Austin Hendrick had three hits in three games last year with Chattanooga. He homered twice in each of those games. In Friday’s season opener he had three hits but he didn’t homer. New year, new trend.
The Dayton Dragons lost 5-1. Box Score
Game Notes
Nestor Lorant struck out seven batters to open up his season. In 24 games with Dayton last season he only had seven more more strikeouts twice. His season high was nine and that also took place against Fort Wayne and he also threw 4.1 innings in that game. The Dragons lost that game, too.
The Dragons pitching staff had 10 groundouts and just one flyout.
The Daytona Tortugas lost 3-2. Box Score
Game Notes
Tyson Lewis picked up his first home run of the season and it was crushed. It only went 385 feet but it came off of his bat at 111 MPH.
Reliever Andrew Shaffner made his pro debut in the game. He was the 15th round pick out of NC State last summer.
Catcher Henry Hunter also made his affiliated debut in the game. He was undrafted out of Georgia last summer and signed with the Florence Freedom of the Frontier League and played in 21 games there last year. He signed with the Reds on Halloween of 2025. Hunter came off of the bench to pinch hit in the 9th inning but struck out.
Top 25 Prospects Rundown
4/4 Game Preview