By Conner Farrell–
In the second matchup of the NCAA regional, top-seeded U of L baseball used a huge eighth inning to down Oklahoma. Scoring seven of their 11 runs in the inning, Louisville won 11-1.
The game began as a pitcher’s duel with both teams only registering one hit a piece through five innings.
Junior Brenden McKay dazzled through the first four innings, surrendering no hits and striking out five.
Even with McKay’s blistering start, the Sooners struck first recording the first run of the game off an RBI double from sophomore Kyle Medenhall.
In the following inning, the Cards responded with a sac fly from senior Logan Taylor to score sophomore Josh Stowers from third base, tying the game at one.
McKay exited in the top of the sixth inning in favor of senior Jake Sparger, who would get the team out of a jam with two runners on base with two outs.
McKay went 6.3 innings with 100 pitches, seven strikeouts and three hits given up.
Following a scoreless frame in the seventh, the boom would be lowered by the Cards in the eighth.
With the bases loaded, Taylor started the scoring with a two run RBI single to push the lead to 3-1.
The next at bat yielded another two run hit, this time a triple by junior Colby Fitch to tack two more onto the lead.
The back-to-back RBI hits proved to be the ignitor for the Cards.
As three more pitchers got their turn on the mound for the Sooners, the Cardinal hitters added on three more runs for insurance to make the lead 8-1.
The Cards tacked on three more runs in the following inning with the exclamation point coming from McKay who scored two with double down the first base line.
Four different Cardinal hitters recorded two-or-more RBIs in the game with Taylor leading them all with three.
The team is back in action at 7 p.m. tomorrow to face the winner of Oklahoma and Xavier for a spot in the NCAA Super Regional.
Photo by Dalton Ray / The Louisville Cardinal
