By Derek DeBurger

After a disastrous week, a return to the NCAA tournament is back in serious doubt for Louisville.

Tuesday

The week started in Bowling Green against the WKU Hilltoppers. WKU jumped out to a two-run lead in the first inning which held steady for the majority of the game. The Hilltoppers went scoreless for the rest of regulation as the Cards clawed their way back with home runs in the fifth and eighth innings. Louisville had the momentum going into extra innings, but with two outs in the bottom of the 10th, the Cards allowed a walk-off single to drop the game, 2-3.

The Cards pitched and batted well against the Hilltoppers. What kept Louisville from coming out victorious was when the bats fell short. Louisville left 12 runners on bases during the game, including three runners in scoring position over the final three innings.

Friday

The weekend series against the Virginia Cavaliers could not have gotten off to a worse start for the Cards. Louisville fell behind 1-6 after the first three innings, later reaching 3-11, and as if the game weren’t already out of reach, Virginia scored 10 runs in the ninth inning to complete the blowout.

Louisville lost 3-21.

Saturday

On Saturday at least, the Cards could not have gotten off to a better start, scoring nine runs in the first three innings. During this run, Ryan McCoy drove in five runs on his own with a two-run double and a three-run home run. McCoy would end the day batting 3-for-5 with seven RBIs.

The Cavs made a couple of strong comeback efforts, but the Cards were able to render them both too little and too late. After Virginia notched four runs in the fourth, Louisville scored five more in the sixth and seventh innings to grow the lead to nine runs. Virginia scored five runs of their own in the eighth and ninth innings but ran out of room for the comeback as Kaleb Corbett helped punch out the final three outs.

Louisville takes the game 14-10.

Sunday

With a chance to win their second straight ACC series, the Cards were trailing the whole day Sunday. After falling behind five runs, Louisville scored three runs in the third inning to cut the lead down to 3-5. Unfortunately for the Cards, down two was the closest the score would get for the rest of the game. Virginia scored at least one run in every inning except for the eighth, including four in the sixth and ninth innings. Louisville lost handily 7-16.

Louisville would lose the series 1-2.

With the Cards now back below .500 in the ACC (7-8), the odds of having a long postseason are getting shorter with each lost series. Louisville ranks 94th in the RPI with just around a month left in the season. Louisville’s remaining schedule is one of the more difficult in the country, so they’ll need to improve in nearly all areas to string together enough wins to raise their RPI to a respectable level. The Cards have shown that ability this season, but not consistently.

Louisville falls to 21-14 on the year.

File Photo // Louisville Baseball