Starting 5: Louisville Bats on hot streak; U of L and UK in NCAA track championships; more

Thunder Over Louisville's got nothing on what's going on at Louisville Slugger Field.

The Louisville Bats have been putting on a fireworks display all season, and for the first time since 2016 they are above .500.

The Bats' 5-3 win in 10 innings Thursday at Syracuse, which pushed them to 24-23, marked the first time Louisville has had a winning record since July 27, 2016. They are now 26-23 after Saturday's 6-4 win.

The Bats were just 3-11 on April 15 and have since slugged like one of the best teams in the International League.

Their 77 homers are fifth in all of Triple-A and second in the IL behind only Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (87), and they've had more in the last 30 days (51) than every other team. Louisville is third in the IL in batting average (.292) and second in runs scored (185) in the last 30 days.

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And that includes two weeks without Matt McLain, who was tied for fifth in the IL with 12 long balls in just 38 games before being called up by the Cincinnati Reds. (He's hit two more dingers in 10 big league games.)

The Bats' Elly De La Cruz and Christian Encarnacion-Strand are tied for first (10 homers) and tied for fourth (nine), respectively, in Triple-A in the last 30 days. Encarnacion-Strand hit a 471-foot bomb on May 11, tied for the second longest Triple-A homer this year. And De La Cruz mashed a 465-footer on May 21. He launched a 450 foot shot over the Syracuse scoreboard Thursday, too.

Expect more fireworks this week when Louisville returns home to face Worcester for a six-game series beginning Tuesday.

Around the city state: UK, U of L send athletes to NCAA track championships

The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held in Austin, Texas, from June 7-10. Here's who qualified this past week out of the East Region preliminary meet from the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky:

• Louisville: Cardinals offensive lineman Bryan Hudson wasted no time punching his ticket to NCAAs with a lifetime best 62-5.75 shot put heave, finishing eighth in the prelim, and will be joined on the men's side in Austin by Sterling Warner-Savage (100 meter), Cameron Miller (200), Trey Allen (high jump) the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams. On the women's side, Synclair Savage (long jump) and Aliyah Welter (pole vault) qualified, as did the 4x100 relay team.

• Kentucky: Three-time SEC pole vault champion Keaton Daniel qualified on the first day of the east prelim, and he'll be joined in Austin on the men's side by Josh Sobota (shot put), long jumpers Jordan Turner and Robbie Springfield, Brian Faust (400), Wayne Lawrence Jr. (400), Kennedy Lightner (200) and the 4x400 relay. On the women's side, Anthaya Charlton (100), Karimah Davis (200), Masai Russell (100 hurdles, 400 hurdles) and the 4x100 and 4x400 relays qualified.

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Performance of the week: Louisville men's tennis pair makes NCAA quarterfinals

Natan Rodrigues and Fabien Salle made school history last week, becoming just the second U of L doubles team ever to earn All-America status. Rodrigues, a sophomore, and Salle, a graduate senior, did so by beating Auburn in the Round of 16 of the NCAA Doubles Championship. The 12th-ranked pair, which went 26-8 on the season, lost in the quarterfinals to No. 3 Texas on Thursday, 6-2, 6-7 (0), 1-0 (5).

High school recruiting: Male High's Isaac Sowells and Antonio Harris land UK offers

• Isaac Sowells, a Class of 2025 offensive lineman at Male High, landed his fifth Division I offer Tuesday from Kentucky. The three-star prospect also has offers from Louisville, Eastern Kentucky, Bethune-Cookman and Indiana State.

• Sowells' classmate, Antonio Harris, also picked up an offer Tuesday from the Wildcats. The three-star athlete has an offer from Louisville as well.

• Christian Academy girls basketball sophomore guard Bailee Duck earned her first D-I offer Thursday from Northern Kentucky. That came a day after Central junior forward Destiny Jones picked up her first offer, also from the Norse.

• George Rogers Clark girls basketball sophomore picked up another D-I offer from Miami, which made its first Elite Eight in program history this past season.

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Mark your calendars

• Racing Louisville FC has two more games this week, both on the road, against the Chicago Red Stars on Wednesday at 8 p.m. and the Washington Spirit on Saturday at 8 p.m. The club had its first three-game winning streak snapped with a 2-1 loss over the weekend at Lynn Family Stadium against the North Carolina Courage, which also prevented a move up to sixth place on the National Women’s Soccer League table.

• Louisville City FC will visit struggling Hartford Athletic on Saturday at 7 p.m.

• The KHSAA spring sports championships all begin this week. The boys and girls tennis tournaments run Tuesday through Thursday; the track and field championships begin Thursday with Class 1A, then Class 2A on Friday and 3A on Saturday; and baseball and softball championships start with first-round games Thursday and Friday. All events will be at the University of Kentucky, except baseball's opening two rounds, which will be held at Counter Clocks Field in Lexington.

Play of the week: Garrard County's Tavian Neff turns insane double play in regional semifinal

Garrard County junior pitcher Tavian Neff made a sensational play Wednesday in the KHSAA 12th Region semifinals. Neff was in a jam in the second inning with Southwestern runners on second and third. But he forced a double play you have to see to believe, snaring a line drive with his bare pitching hand. Before the sting had even worn off, he threw to his older brother, Caden, at third base for a force-out.

You can hear a fan yell "Oh my God!" in the background of the video. That about sums it up.

The Golden Lions beat Southwestern 4-1 but lost to Pulaski County in the regional championship the next night.

Each week we'll highlight what's going on in and around Louisville, from high school to pro sports, in our "Starting 5." Got a story to tell or a play of the week? Tweet at us @CJ_Sports or email us at jadams@gannett.com. You can follow assistant sports editor Jake Adams on Twitter @jakeadams520. Courier Journal reporter Brooks Holton contributed to this week's report.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville Bats surging; Kentucky, U of L in NCAA track championships