Louisville baseball picked up their first series sweep of the season over Brown, but showed serious room for improvement.
Sweeping the series against Brown left Louisville baseball with three more W’s for the season making the 5-2. Just as they did when they played UConn in Florida in their season opener, they left too many guys on base. In the three-game series against UConn they stranded 33 runners, 12 each for the two L’s UConn handed them. They left 21 on against Brown.
If you add in their home opener and only other game this season against Eastern Kentucky, they’ve stranded a total of 58 men this season already. Compare that to their opponents 38 and you can start to see where it becomes a problem in the future.
Aside from that and the two losses against UConn to start the season, I’d say our Cardinals will be a fun one to watch.
They may be leaving guys on base, but they mostly have the hitting to make up for it. If they figure out how to get those hits in crunch times, they’ll be a team to watch this year.
Game one against UConn was an eight-hit 3-2 loss for the Cards. Junior Jake Snider went 2-for-5 and junior Ethan Stringer went 2-for-4.
The only win for the Cardinals in the series against the Huskies came in an exciting fashion. They got 12 hits in the 12-2. Junior Drew Campbell went 2-for-3 with a double and sophomore Lucas Dunn went 2-for-3 with a home run. Junior Logan Wyatt was 2-for-2 with a triple and walked all three of his other appearances at the plate. Junior Tyler Fitzgerald homered and went 2-for-5. Along with sophomore Zach Britton’s three-run homer, the Cards hit three home runs in the domination.
No. 8 Louisville 13, Brown 2 FINAL. Cards get the Sunday sweep! #L1C4 pic.twitter.com/fWRyVSrR1y
— Louisville Baseball (@LouisvilleBSB) February 24, 2019
The Cards left nine on base in this game, but scoring those nine could’ve bumped the victory up by more.
The Cards took an 8-3 loss in the rubber game against UConn. Louisville had nine hits with Wyatt going 2-for-4 with a solo home run, junior Danny Oriente going 2-for-5 with two doubles and Dunn going 2-for-2 with a double.
Of course, this didn’t do much because Louisville still left men in scoring position twice near the end of the game.
The Cards had two men in scoring position in the sixth but left them standing. In the eighth, the Cardinals left three guys on after the home plate umpire ruled Ethan Stringer didn’t attempt to move out of the way of a pitch that hit him. Strike three and three outs, Louisville’s last opportunity to get runs across with men in scoring position.
Find a way to bring all of those guys home and they would’ve had a tie ballgame and potential for a win.
The Cardinals got five runs in five hits in their 5-1 home opener win over EKU. Fitzgerald went 2-for-3 with a double.
They didn’t go without leaving runners on in this game, though, leaving nine on bases.
In the near no-hitter, 7-0 victory against Brown for the first of a three-game sweep the Cardinals had 12 hits. Lucas Dunn and Tyler Fitzgerald went 2-for-3, Fitzgerald having four RBIs. Jake Snider went 4-for-4.
Sophomore Reid Detmers was the starting pitcher for the Cards and nearly had a perfect game. He didn’t allow anyone on the bases until a one-out walk in the sixth. After seven hitless innings and a career-high 11 strikeouts, he handed the ball off to freshman Jack Perkins. Perkins gave out one walk before leaving the eighth without a scratch. Just when Louisville was one out away from a no-no, a fly ball hit to sliding Britton in right field deflected off his glove giving Brown their one and only hit of the game.
The Cards won by seven in this game but also left seven men stranded on the bases.
Game two wasn’t as pretty for the Cards although they pulled off the 5-4 victory over Brown in 10 innings. They were down 4-3 at the bottom of the fifth. They tied the game in the sixth with a sacrifice fly from Binelas that scored Stringer but left three on base that inning.
The next three innings were uneventful for both teams. Louisville left one runner on in scoring position in the eighth.
The 10th inning brought some excitement when sophomore Trey Leonard, pinch running for Oriente who reached base on a walk, stole second, and Campbell followed him with a steal of second base after he singled to first base. With two outs in the inning and two runners in scoring position, junior Justin Lavey singled to right field to score Leonard and win the game.
Louisville had five hits in the game with Wyatt going 2-for-4 with a double.
Louisville left another nine guys on base in this game. Guys that if hit in, could’ve kept the game from going to extras.
Louisville swept the series in a 13-2 victory over Brown.
This game started on Saturday & ended on Sunday when it was delayed at the top of the ninth due to rain.
The Cardinals had a team total of 13 hits with Oriente going 3-for-3 with a double and senior Zeke Pinkham going 3-for-4.
The Cards only left five on base this game, the lowest they have so far this season.
Louisville is getting the hits, they just need to get the hits to get the guys around the bases. Leaving guys on the bases isn’t going to get the Cards more Ws.
The Cards need to find a way to put their extra-base hitting in play when they have guys to score for them. It’s still early and I think they’ll figure it out, and once they do, they’ll be golden.