By Brett Jager

The growth of the University of Louisville baseball program has been astronomical since Head Coach Dan McDonnell took over two seasons ago. McDonnell feels there has been one thing missing the past two seasons from putting them amongst the country’s elite programs: a fast start to the season.
“The motto for this year is get out of the gate and play well early,” said McDonnell. “We did not do that last year, and it was only alright two years ago. We’ve never really come out of the gate on fire, and it will be a great challenge for this team playing the likes of University of Florida and other great teams early.”
Expectations are high for this year’s team who is ranked in the top 25 in several different polls, peaking as high as No. 8. The Cards have been unanimously picked to win the Big East Conference after winning the conference tournament last year and returning almost all key players from last season.
“Recognition from the coaches in our conference is a testament to our success over the past several seasons,” Jeff Arnold, junior catcher and Preseason All-Big East selection, said. “It is an honor to be chosen first in the conference, but it means very little once the games are played.  We ultimately want to be the No.1 team when the Big East season comes to an end in May.”
One of the big reasons the Cards are favored in the Big East is because the team returns the Big East Player of the Year from last year, third baseman Chris Dominguez, and All-Big East Performer, pitcher Justin Marks. Dominguez was selected as the conference’s Preseason Player of the Year, and Marks the Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
“You have to have superstars to have a great club,” McDonnell said. “Those two guys have both been in the fire the past two years and were a big part of our run to Omaha two years ago. When you have superstars, it takes pressure off other hitters and pitchers on the team, but they cannot do it alone. It is going to take the guys surrounding them to step up for us to really have a successful season.”
The Cards will open the season on the road in Gainesville, Fl. on Feb. 20 for a weekend series against top 25 opponent University of Florida. Other key non-conference games include a pair against the University of Kentucky, top 25 Vanderbilt University at home, and University of Tennessee on the road. Senior pitcher and team captain Gavin Logsdon assures the team is not looking ahead at all.
“Game one against Florida on Feb. 20 is the most important,” Logsdon said. “We can’t look beyond that. That’s the one we’ve been preparing for all fall and spring. After that it’s game two! We can’t get ahead of ourselves, because every single game as well as series is important and we have to take them one at a time.”
One of McDonnell’s main goals for this season was to make Jim Patterson Stadium more accommodating for students. In doing so, he commissioned the building of a six-foot wide area down the left-field line outside of the bullpen for the students to congregate.
“Our student support definitely grew from year one to year two,” McDonnell said. “We had great student involvement and turn out at our games. A lot of the students congregated down the left-field line in such a small area and I’m glad we were able to expand it to allow the students to stand or sit down there comfortably. We also have anywhere from thirty to fifty students traveling down to Gainesville which is very exciting for our team.”
Starting Mar. 14-25, the Cards will host nine straight home games, three of them being against Georgetown University to begin the Big East season.
“Winning at home is as important in baseball as it is in any other sport,” Arnold said. “We must play well at home if we are going to have a chance to win the Big East, and that begins with Georgetown.”
The Cardinals plan on living up to their goals and expectations to have another successful season.
“I think it’s obvious that we want to have a 40-plus win season, win the Big East and win a National Championship,” Logsdon said. “That’s every team’s goal. But ultimately we just want to come out everyday and play our best baseball throwing strikes, making the plays and getting the timely hits to give us the best chance to win. We need to take every game one at a time, enjoy what we are doing and I’m sure we can put together another successful year!”