By Charlie Leffler
ATLANTA-Every NCAA baseball team sees the number 40 as the barrier that they need to break to show they are among the nation’s elite. Though the Louisville Cardinals set a new school record with 39 wins on the season, they seemed to have closed out the season as if the 40-win mark was an impenetrable barrier.
On Saturday afternoon, the U of L team (39-18) ended its season with a 1-9 loss to Coastal Carolina (44-18) in what has become familiar fashion of late. The usually powerful Louisville bats once again remained largely silent as the pitching staff gave up run, after run, after run, after…
The Chanticleers scored in each of its first six innings to jump out to a 9-1 lead on 16 hits, but all they needed to take the Cards out of the game was a solo homer by right fielder Chad Felty, their second batter.
After matching the school mark of 38-wins at East Carolina, the Cards have gone 1-5 in their last six games, including four straight post season contests in which they scored a total of three runs. The Cards had not been held to one run throughout their entire season, but only managed single runs in one C-USA game while also scoring one in each of the NCAA Regional contests.
The game against Coastal Carolina started off with the Cards looking as if they were going to come out of their late season hitting slump. Centerfielder Dave Williams Jr. led off with a single then later scored on a hit by first baseman Morgan Bojorquez. But, it was to be the only player that U of L could push across the plate.
Meanwhile, Coastal Carolina scored two runs in the bottom of the first. A solo home run by Chad Felty and an RBI double by catcher Randy McGarvey Jr. pushed them ahead 2-1.The Chanticleers then added two more in the bottom of the second. One in each the third and fourth, two in the fifth, then one more in the sixth. It seemed as if the Cardinal outfielders spent more time looking at the wall then at home plate as they chased ball after ball onto the warning track.
In their opening game against Georgia Tech the Chanticleers managed to only pick up three hits. Against the Cardinals, Coastal Carolina matched that number in the first inning.
Every Coastal Carolina player had picked up at least one hit by the bottom of the eighth inning. Seven of the eleven Chanticleers who batted scored runs.
It wasn’t until Louisville’s Grant Williams entered the game midway through the sixth inning that the Cards showed any signs of stopping the Chanticleers’ bats. Williams gave up one run on three hits and four strikeouts over 3.1 innings. U of L’s Scott Barber (4-6) was credited with the loss by giving up five runs, six hits and only one strikeout in two innings.
Coastal’s Seamus Donavan (9-3)picked up the win in a complete game with three strikeouts, three base on balls, one run and one error while allowing only a single run.
“Our pitching was awful,” said Louisville head coach Lelo Prado. “Our hitting… you’ve got to score more than one. That’s been our problem the last four games. It’s just sad that it ended that way because hitting has been one of our strengths all year.”
“You can’t fall behind without swinging the bats and we did that today,” said Prado. “Give Coastal credit. They came out swinging the bats.” Now the Cardinals return home with a long off season to think about how far they’ve come this season and how far they have yet to go. “It’s a learning process,” said Prado. “We made it here for the first time in school history and I’m very proud of our guys.”
“I don’t think you can ask for any more motivation than this,” said Dave Williams Jr. “It’s kind of like putting your hand in the cookie jar and getting your hand slapped.”
U of L loses only five players to graduation and among them only one regular starting third baseman in Mike Budak. “We’re going to have a strong senior class,” said first baseman Morgan Bojorquez. “I guarantee you we’ll be back to the Regionals next year.”
“It’s the first step,” said Prado. “We have to get here before we can start making strides and I’m proud of them for what they did during the year. Hopefully, we’ll be back and have a little experience next year and play a lot better than what we did here in two games.”
