By: Hannah Walker–

The No. 5 Louisville Cardinal’s baseball team played against the Cincinnati Bearcats at UC Baseball Stadium on March 30. The game went into overtime, and U of L lost with a final score of 12-13.

Senior Luke Smith was the starting pitcher for Louisville. He was successfully able to make three strikeouts and one groundout during the three innings he pitched. This put Louisville at a decent start on defense.

However, Cincinnati was also able to pick up a point during the bottom of the first inning.

Still, Louisville started to pick up speed during the top of the second inning when they scored four points. Freshman infielder Christian Knapczyk tripled down the first base line and both junior outfielder Trey Leonard and sophomore catcher/infielder Ben Metzinger scored. It wasn’t long till Knapczyk also scored, as well as sophomore infielder Cooper Bowman.

No points were made by either team during the third inning, but U of L made up for that when they scored an additional four points during the top of the fourth inning. However, the Bearcats also scored four points during the bottom of the fourth inning, as well as a point at the bottom of the fifth inning. This tied the game 8-8 going into the sixth inning.

U of L was able to break the tie during the sixth inning when junior outfielder Trey Leonard made a homerun to right center. This allowed sophomore outfielder Levi Usher to make a point as well.

Nonetheless, the Bearcats took the lead during the bottom of the seventh inning when two additional point were made. This put Louisville at a 1-point deficit going into the eighth inning.

The Cardinals tied up the game again during the top of the eighth inning. Leonard doubled to right center and junior infielder/outfielder Lucas Dunn scored. No additional points were made by either team during the ninth inning and this put the game into an extra inning.

During the top of the tenth inning, U of L scored once again. Knnapczyk filed out to center field and Dunn made his second consecutive point. Still, this was not enough to win the game. Cincinnati scored two additional points during the bottom of the tenth inning and won the game.

Louisville will be playing their next game on Apr. 2 at 6:00 p.m. at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Photo Courtesy of Justin Krueger// U of L Athletics