BATON ROUGE – The Selma Cloverleafs fell to 2-2 on the season with an 8-3 loss to Baton Rouge’s River Bats hereTuesday.

The River Bats, 3-1, finished the night with 12 hits and bruised Cloverleaf pitcher Bryan Rushton.

Rushton (0-1) allowed 10 hits and eight earned runs. He walked one and struck out two before being relieved by Lucas McCullom with two out in the sixth.

The River Bats’s Darrin Babineaux’s pitched a strong game for the win.

Babineaux looked sharp in his 63-pitch outing, which included 45 strikes. He surrendered a lead-off homer to the Leafs’ Joe Whitmer in the second to slice Baton Rouge’s lead to 2-1 and a two-out triple to Bart Cowan (2-for-4) in the third.

“I kept us in the game and that’s one of our objectives,” said Babineaux, a former second-round draft choice by the Los Angeles Dodgers. “Obviously our hitters are swinging the bats well right now and that gives the pitchers a lot of confidence. And we also have a solid defense that played well again. We’re pretty sound overall with everything right now.”

Baton Rouge scored three times on four hits in the fourth for a 5-1advantage. Rushton’s wildness opened the door for a pair of runs in the bottom of the first.

Rushton hit three batters and walked another. His wild pitch allowed a runner to score from third with the game’s first run.

The two teams play again tonight in Baton Rouge.