By: Hannah Walker–

The No. 5 Louisville Cardinal’s baseball team faced the Florida State Seminoles on April 9 at Jim Patterson Stadium and won with a final score of 4-3. The game had a slow start as both teams struggled offensively. Nonetheless, Louisville was able to pick things up towards the final inning of the game.

The starting pitcher for U of L was junior Michael Kirian. The star player successfully pitched for the first seven innings, made 10 strike outs and had a pitching total of 91. Following Kirian’s pitching, senior Adam Elliott took over during the last three innings of the game and had 5 strikeouts during his short time on the mound. This is what ultimately led to the win.

No scores were made for either team during the first five innings of the game. For this reason, U of L struggled until the bottom of the sixth inning. Finally, one RBI was made when junior outfielder Luke Brown singled to the pitcher. It wasn’t long after when sophomore infielder Cooper Bowman advanced to second, and freshman infielder Christian Knapczyk scored as well.

U of L continued to stay ahead of Florida State when they scored a second time during the bottom of the sixth inning. Sophomore infielder Alex Binelas singled to center field and advanced on a throw. This allowed junior outfielder Luke Brown to advance to third and give Bowman the chance to score. Louisville went into the seventh inning with a three-point lead.

During the top of the seventh inning, Florida State started to score as well. They were able to make 3 RBIs, and this tied the score 3-3.

No scores were made for either team during the eighth and ninth inning; causing the game to go into an extra inning. Luckily, for Louisville, sophomore outfielder Levi Usher singled to center field on an RBI. Sophomore catcher Henry Davis then advanced to third and gave Knapczyk the ability to score. This broke the tie and gave Louisville the win.

“If you notice there’s a couple innings where we had a few fly outs,” said head coach Dan McDonell during a post-game interview. “I think we got a little big during the eighth and ninth and the message going into the 10th was ‘guys we’ve got to stay on the ball and move the ball.’” Because of these encouraging messages made by the coaching staff, Louisville is able to go into tomorrow’s game with a more focused and confident outlook.

U of L will play against Florida State again on April 10 at Jim Patterson Stadium at 1:00 p.m. (with the possibility of a delay.)

Photo Courtesy of Justin Krueger// U of L Athletics