By Gabriel Wiest —

The Cardinals won their second straight College World Series elimination game June 20 in a walk off against Mississippi State 4-3.

Louisville will face off against Vanderbilt June 21. The Cardinals have already lost one game against the team during the tournament and are facing elimination if they lose again.

“I’m super proud of these guys,” said head coach Dan McDonnell. “There was a lot of belief in that dugout. You could hear it in the tone and the comments and the words. They definitely felt like we had a chance. We just had to make it happen, and we were able to.”

Coming off a 5-3 win against Auburn, it was clear Louisville was not going to be eliminated without a fight.

The game started with a three-inning stalemate. Junior Nick Bennett pitched the first four innings, earning an ERA of 4.40.

At the top of the fourth the Bulldogs struck iron with two runs and no answer from the Cards.

The Bulldogs then came back with another run made at the top of the seventh inning.

Juniors Tyler Fitzgerald and Danny Oriente made the first two runs for the Cards at the bottom of the seventh. The Bulldogs did not answer the rest of the game.

In a walk off, Louisville came back in the bottom of the ninth to score two more runs to win the game, with Oriente’s second of the night, and junior Jake Snider’s first.

Oriente and junior Drew Campbell had a combined four at-bats, four hits and three RBI’s opening up the Cards for offensive plays.

“I think you can see a lot from our team in those two at-bats from Oriente and Campbell,” said McDonnell. “Those two at-bats by those guys really showed our toughness.”

File Photo / The Louisville Cardinal