By Derek DeBurger

No. 20 Louisville drops their final road series of the regular season to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Friday

Louisville started off with a bang in the series.

After Jake Munroe hit a modest RBI-single in the top of the first, the Cards exploded the very next inning for 13 runs.

Louisville hit back-to-back-to-back home runs, accounting for just five of their runs.

After the string of homers, Tech’s pitching staff took deaths by a million cuts. Louisville scored five consecutive runs with bases loaded by either getting base hits or reaching via walk or hit by pitch.

Lucas Moore added one extra run in the third to give the Cards a 15-0 lead.

All-ACC phenom Drew Burress hit a two-RBI-single to give the Jackets their only runs of the game, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to mount a comeback.

Louisville easily won 16-2 in the seventh inning.

Louisville’s pitching staff only recorded one strikeout, but it was more than enough to get Ethan Eberle his fifth win of the year.

Moore went 4-for-6 with five RBIs to lead all batters. Zion Rose went 3-for-5 with four RBIs including his homer in the second inning. Munroe and Eddie King Jr. both went 2-for-3 with a walk each.

Sunday game one

After a weather delay postponed the game on Saturday, the Cards were sufficiently cooled off.

Tech scored three runs to kick off the first inning, immediately putting the Cards in an 0-3 hole.

Louisville couldn’t get anything going, as Brady Jones mowed down the Cards batters.

Tech added another three runs in the sixth inning, bringing Louisville’s deficit to six runs.

It took until the top of the seventh inning for Louisville to get a hit with Garret Pike battling for nine pitches just to get a single. But it wouldn’t matter as no runs came from it, and Dan McDonnell and Danny Hall agreed to cut the game short after just seven innings.

Louisville lost 0-6.

Sunday game two

The rubber match was much closer but just as painful, as it was a classic pitchers’ duel.

Georgia Tech would start the first inning again with a run, this time by way of a sacrifice fly.

The middle innings would be just a rough as the first game of the doubleheader, with Louisville consistently failing to get anyone on base.

Munroe was able to draw two walks, but no hits. It wasn’t until Tague Davis hit a solo homer in the seventh that Louisville was able to get a hit and tie the game in one fell swoop.

The home run was also Davis’s 16th of the season, giving him the single-season freshman record for Louisville baseball. He passed Chris Dominguez to claim the lead for himself, as Dominguez held the record since 2007.

Unfortunately, Jake Schweitzer would give up a run in the bottom of that same inning, giving back the lead to Tech.

The game would go back to boring, and would fall out of reach.

Louisville lost the game 1-2 and lost the series 1-2, as well.

Glaring

Louisville now falls to 6-12 in true road games this season, with their already slim chances of hosting a regional all but vanishing.

Without a strong showing in the ACC tournament, an event that McDonnell has been openly against competing in, Louisville will likely be a 2-seed in someone else’s regional.

On the bright side the pitching appears to be peaking, which is exactly what teams need to go on deep runs in June. If the bats can return to their earlier form, the Cards could play spoiler in a few weeks.

Louisville is now 34-17 on the season and 14-13 in the ACC.

Photo Courtesy // Taris Smith, Louisville Athletics