By Morgan Davenport

Louisville had an eventful week of games, taking down three different teams.

Tuesday

The Cardinals started off strong with the Lipscomb Bison.

Alex Alicea kicked off the scoring with two-RBI-triple in the second, lighting the fire for the Cards offense.

In the fourth, Matt Klein gained the Cards a three-run home run. This gave Louisville a substantial lead and they just kept building on it.

Tague Davis recorded his sixth home run of the season in the fifth, along with two RBI-singles from Nate Earley and Kamau Neighbors. The Cards just kept scoring that inning, laying eight on the Bisons. After driving one run in earlier in the fifth, Early ended the inning with another single to drive Davis home, but the run was unearned.

The Cards brought thirteen batters to the plate, matching its season-high with eight runs for the inning.

The Louisville pitching staff utilized a lot of good arms as well.

Justin West started off on the mound and was followed by Brandin Crawford, Ty Starke, Jake Schweitzer, Ethan Eberle and Tucker Biven.

All contributing to the first shutout of the season, as the Cards easily won via run-rule 13-0.

Wednesday

The Cardinals followed up their first weekday game with another against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies.

Wednesday’s was scheduled on the fly by Dan McDonnell in response to their previously scheduled game against Xavier getting rained out.

Jared Lessman got his first start at Louisville, pitching two scoreless innings before ending his day. Unfortunately for Lessman, the Cards couldn’t get much offense going and failed to give him a lead to work with.

Oakland then kicked off the scoring in the third with an RBI-double.

But Louisville was only inspired by Oakland kicking off the runs. George Baker gained his first collegiate home run, followed by Klein and Munroe adding RBIs to make the game 3-1.

Oakland responded quickly, gaining four runs in the fourth to regain the lead.

Jake Munroe tripled in the fifth to close the gap, but the Golden Grizzles still held the lead 4-5.

The Louisville offense woke up in the sixth, with Zion Rose gaining the Cards the lead with a two-RBI-single. Munroe and Davis took the lead even further with two back-to-back homers, making it a seven-run inning for the Cardinals.

The pitching tightened up from their, and two more runs in the eighth would seal the deal.

Louisville won 13-5 on great showings from Munroe and Garret Pike, going a combined 9-for-10.

Friday game one

Louisville had their weekend series against the No. 6 North Carolina Tar Heels to open up ACC play.

The series started with a doubleheader, as heavy rain was anticipated for Saturday.

The scoring started off in a funky way, with Lucas Moore reaching home plate on a balk. Then Rose hit a two-run homer in the third to take a 3-0 lead.

Louisville’s pitching staff once again did a spectacular job, putting the right arms on the mound when needed. Patrick Forbes started off on the bump, striking out five out of the first nine batters he faced.

Forbes unfortunately lost control in the fourth, giving up three runs to tie up the game. Brennyn Cutts then came in to replace Forbes, giving up four more to bring the Tar Heels to a 3-7 lead.

Munroe didn’t sweat it, though, as he went up for a grand slam to tie the game in the fifth. Pike then scored on a UNC error, giving the Cards the lead again.

Eberle retired nine of the ten batters he faced, pitching three scoreless innings and only giving up one hit.

Biven finished off on the mound securing his first save of the season.

Louisville won 8-7.

Friday game two

The second game of the day got to a rougher start for the Cards.

The Tar Heels kicked off the game with three runs, staying that way until a two-run homer in the sixth inning to put Louisville in a 0-5 hole.

Meanwhile, the Cards could not get any offense going as Jake Knapp just mowed doing batter after batter.

It wasn’t until the fifth inning that Louisville got their first hit, and they finally scored in the sixth but both runs were unearned.

The pitching for Louisville straightened up through the middle innings, but UNC was able to send one more home in the top of the eighth to bring the score to 2-6.

In the bottom of the eighth, Rose sent a run home and scored himself off of two errors, and Klein even got a base hit to keep the momentum going. With two errors in the eighth, it seemed like the Tar Heels wanted to keep the game going, but Munroe grounded into a double play to end it there.

In the bottom of the ninth, Pike reached first then was swapped out with Bayram Hot on a fielder’s choice. With Louisville just one swing away from extra innings, Tagger Tyson struck out swinging to end the game.

Louisville lost 4-6.

Sunday

In the rubber match with a top 10 victory on the line, Louisville had about as dominant a performance as you can hope for.

Peter Micheal lit up the mound, giving up no hits up until the sixth.

At the same time the Cards offense was on point, taking advantage of a litany of UNC errors. It was a 1-0 game until the seventh when Tyson sent a double fresh off the bench, bringing in Eddie King Jr.

Louisville gained three more runs in the eighth. Munroe and Klein having back-to-back RBI-doubles and King added a sacrifice fly to bring Munroe home.

Wyatt Danilowicz and Biven were the only other pitchers to leave the bull pen, picking up where Michael left off and not allowing any more hits.

One a one-hit shutout, Louisville won the game 5-0 and the series 2-1.

This is maybe the most impressive week the Louisville pitching staff has had all season long.

Not only did Louisville pitch their first two shutouts of the year, but one was during the week where the Cards have struggled and one was against the Tar Heels who was projected to be one of the best teams in the country.

On the other end of the field Louisville’s bats are on fire, currently ranking second place nationally in batting average at .348. Munroe specifically is playing amazing baseball, hitting .469 which ranks 19th in the country.

As long as Louisville’s pitching staff continues to play to their strengths and their offense continues to play well, the Cardinals are in for a big comeback year.

Louisville is now 16-3 on the season and 2-1 in the ACC.

Photo Courtesy // Caleb Jones, Louisville Athletics