By Derek DeBurger
After a disappointing tournament to open the season, Louisville will try to bounce back with a week at Jim Patterson Stadium.
The week will start with a game on Wednesday against the Xavier Musketeers. Xavier got swept in their first series against Clemson in three games that were not particularly close. Weekday games are always strange due to their departure from the weekend pitching rotation, so it’ll be interesting to see what Louisville fields on the mound. Xavier didn’t show the best ability to bat against Clemson, so this could potentially be a good opportunity for the bullpen to get some valuable reps in determining who will see the field when it matters most.
As for the mound of Xavier, the Musketeers showed a glaring hole with their starting pitchers, so look for Louisville to take advantage early and hopefully often.
The weekend series will be against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies, a team that had an up-and-down opener in which they gave up 32 runs in three games. The pitching looks to be a massive issue for the Bonnies, particularly when starting. Of the 32 runs given up in their first series, 16 of the runs were in the first three innings. Louisville will most likely receive a major confidence boost to their bats and a returned swagger come Sunday.
While the pitching was more than subpar for the Bonnies, their batting has its highs and lows.
St. Bonaventure scored 28 total runs in their opening series, 22 of those runs coming in one game. This early in the season, it’s not yet clear if the Bonnies are elite at the plate or if the Citadel—St. Bonaventure’s previous opponent—has problems with managing the bullpen. There is potential that this one game was a fluke and the Bonnies will come back to reality against the Cards, but there’s also a possibility that Louisville will find itself in a shootout this coming weekend. Either way, it should give a better indication of which Cardinal pitchers need to see the mound more often this season.
On paper, this should be an easy week– one for the coaching staff to familiarize themselves with the roster and adjust going forward.
