By Derek DeBurger

Louisville closes out another disappointing week, continuing to look far from improved from last year’s disappointing season.

A Bellarmine Bruising

Louisville started the week with a cross-town matchup against the Bellarmine Knights. The game was closest when it was 0-0 before the first pitch. The Cards held the Knights scoreless through the first three innings, scoring one run in each of the first two innings. While Bellarmine finally did get on the board in the top of the fourth inning, Louisville scored four runs in the bottom to take a five-run lead.

After five more runs in the bottom of the sixth by the Cards and a shutout seventh inning, the game would be called in the seventh via run rule.

Louisville would win 11-1.

Woeful Wake Forest

The weekend series brought the No. 16 Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Wake has lost a lot of respect, falling 15 spots in D1Baseball’s poll over the past two weeks. This would also mark the first true-road series for the Cards this season.

Thursday’s game started poorly for the Cards, particularly for Sebastian Gongora. The starting pitcher gave up three runs in the first inning and two more in the second inning to see the Cards get down five runs almost instantly.

Louisville, however, matched those five scores in the third inning alone, including a grand slam by Luke Napleton. In the top of the fourth inning, the Cards scored another two runs off of a two-RBI single by Dylan Hoy. Wake got back on the board in the bottom of the fourth, taking Gongora for three more runs before getting pulled.

The next two innings were scoreless on both sides. The Cards failed to score in any innings for the rest of the game. Wake ended the final two innings with eight runs, and Louisville would lose 7-16.

Friday’s game looked to be the exact opposite of Thursday’s run-fest. The first five innings were scoreless on both sides, until finally both teams scored a run in the sixth. The seventh inning doomed the Cards. They gave up three runs to Wake with Will Koger at the mound. Louisville would give up one more run in the eighth inning, and score no more for themselves.

Louisville would lose 1-5.

Sunday’s game looked like it was going to be another dark chapter. Wake scored a quick two runs in the first inning and the Cards went scoreless through the first four. Louisville would finally see some life in the fifth inning with Napleton off a wild pitch. In the next inning, the Cards tied the game up with a JT Benson home run. Wake would retake the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Cards wasted no time tying it again and reclaiming the lead with three runs in the seventh. With a two-run lead, the Cards took advantage of the only error of the game for Wake, padding the lead with two more runs.

Louisville would win the game 7-3.

Louisville did lose the series, however, 1-2.

The same inconsistencies

Louisville has now lost eight consecutive conference series dating back to last season.

While only one of the games against the Deacons got out of hand, the Cards may well be past the point of expecting to lose before this series’ even begins. The pitching remains far too inconsistent, and the batting struggled at times against a pitching staff for Wake that has struggled greatly this season.

If the Cards win just one series, it will potentially have a massive effect on the psyche of this team and pay major dividends going forward.

Louisville falls to 15-9 on the season and 2-4 in the ACC.