By Sam Draut–

The Louisville baseball team won the first game of a three-game series against Virginia Tech 8-4 on Saturday at Jim Patterson Stadium. Brendan McKay improved to 6-1 on the season and Corey Ray hit a two-run home run as the Cardinals (21-5 overall, 7-3 in the ACC) overcame a three-run deficit and won its fourth straight.

Berry Boost: Louisville retook the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning on a two-run double by Blake Tiberi. The sophomore third baseman plated McKay and Devin Hairston.

Two out blast: With two outs in bottom of fourth inning, Logan Taylor hit a double down the left-field line, flipping the lineup back to the top of the order. Ray drilled a home-run to dead center field to tie the score at 4-4. The game-tying blast was the junior’s team-leading eighth home run.

Put away: Louisville loaded the bases in the bottom half of the seventh innings and came away with two runs after a single by Colin Lyman. The Cardinals took an 8-4 lead on Lyman’s hard hit single through the left side of the infield.

Inside the park: After Matt Dauby hit a solo home-run to lead off the top of the third inning, Phil Sciretta raced around the bases for an inside the park home-run four batters later with two runners on base to give Virginia Tech a 4-1 lead. Sciretta hit a long fly-ball off the top of the center field wall and Cardinal center-fielder Logan Taylor collided violently with the wall. He remained on the ground as the ball sat idle on the warning track. Taylor received attention from Louisville’s training staff after the play, but stayed in the game.

Rosenbomb: Danny Rosenbaum broke open the scoring in the bottom of the second inning with a solo home-run to dead center-field. The line shot snuck over the wall for the senior’s fourth round tripper of the season.

New #1: McDonnell announced earlier in the week that the starting rotation would be reshuffled, moving McKay to the weekend series first game, Drew Harrington starting the second game and Kyle Funkhouser following on the final day. The weekend series rotation had previously been Funkhouser, McKay and Harrington. In his seventh start of the season, McKay pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up nine hits and four earned runs while striking out 10 batters on 109 pitches. The sophomore picked up his sixth win of the season.

Photo by Wade Morgan / The Louisville Cardinal