By Derek DeBurger

While Louisville baseball had a vindicating weekend, many questions still loom.

After going winless in Tampa, the Cards looked to bounce back against two teams with very below-average bullpens. Wednesday evening’s game against the Xavier Musketeers marked an unorthodox start for Carson Liggett. Normally a weekend starter, Liggett gave up a run in each of the first three innings, forcing the Cards to go to the bullpen early. The reliance on relief pitchers doomed the Cards’ defense, and the offense never got anything going. Only Lucas Moore was able to cross home plate for the Cards in a 1-9 thrashing by the Musketeers.

Now sitting at 0-3 on the year, head coach Dan McDonnell and Jason Rathbun—the St. Bonaventure Bonnies head coach—agreed to add a fourth game to the series for some extra innings of practice, turning Friday’s game into a doubleheader.

In the first game, Louisville scored three runs quickly in the first inning, and pitcher Sebastian Gongora held the Bonnies scoreless for the first four innings. Three runs between the fifth and sixth innings left the match tied, and with Louisville unable to get any offense going during the rest of regulation, the team ended up dropping the game in the extra inning, losing 3-4.

Frustrated with the effort, McDonnell started many of the young players over veterans in the next game, leading to an explosion of offense.

The Cards scored 21 runs in just six innings of play, and Luke Napleton knocked the first home run of the season. The production from the mound matched the dominance; just three runs were given up in the game, and pitcher Parker Detmers picked up the start and the first win of the season for the Cards.

Saturday’s game continued the momentum for this Cardinal team. Louisville scored seven runs in the second inning, four more in the fourth, and only needed to call upon three pitchers. Once again, the production from the mound kept the Bonnies in check and then some. Louisville cruised on to a 15-2 win.

Louisville looked to close out the series with a win, scoring two runs in the first inning of Sunday’s game. An error in the third inning would tie the game up, and the Bonnies would take a two-run lead the next inning. Louisville picked things back up, scoring seven runs through the next three innings to take a 9-4 lead into the seventh. The Bonnies scored a couple of runs in the top of the seventh to keep up, but the Cards brought in a run of their own to keep the lead at four.

For the final two innings, pitcher Jake Karaba came to close out the game but was quickly pulled after getting into a sticky situation. It was a comedy of errors; multiple pitchers tried to contain the comeback, but ultimately gave up five runs in the inning, falling behind 10-11. With two innings to tie the game, there was still time before the Cards players needed to tense up. Louisville took their time at the plate, loading the bases and scoring five runs over their next five batters. Add another three runs before getting out of the inning, and Louisville now had all the momentum back, easily finding three outs at the top of the ninth to end the game at 18-11, Cards.

Louisville would win the series 3-1.

Louisville finally showed the ability to score in bunches but had to go young to do so. While this does signal some unexpected depth for the Cards, there was also a tradeoff in fielding as several errors occurred defensively. There needs to be a balance between the youth and the vets to find consistent success going forward, especially because Louisville’s pitching staff can’t afford fielders who can’t get easy outs.

The pitching also showed some promise in spurts, but there is still a major concern with the relief. Though coach Roger Williams is one of the best pitching coaches in the country, until the bullpen shows some improvement both sides of the ball will need to work together for wins.

Hope has been restored during the season, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.