By Derek DeBurger

No. 21 Louisville ended the regular season on a sour note, dropping their final weekday game and weekend series of the season.

Tuesday

Louisville got their final weekday game against the crosstown-rival Bellarmine Knights got out to a bit of a nice start.

The Cards picked up two runs in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. That lead was wiped away when the Knights scored two runs in the third inning to take the game to 2-2.

The next inning Bellarmine continued to add to the score, starting with a bad error from Louisville that turned a single into a triple and sending two runners home. A single and a double later in the inning putting the deficit at five runs.

A two-run home run from Bellarmine in the sixth put Louisville down 2-9.

It wasn’t until the seven-run hole until the bats of the Cards woke up. Bayram Hot hit an RBI-single to get on base and Nate Earley took him home with a yard shot.

Louisville shot themselves in the foot by loading up the bases then sending a runner home by hitting a batter with a pitch.

But the Cards came right back in the eighth inning, with Lucas Moore getting to second base with two runs scored and Zion Rose hitting a two-run homer to bring the lead down to just one run.

Unfortunately, this was all the offense the Cards could muster up.

Louisville lost 9-10.

Thursday

Looking to wash away the stink of such an embarrassing loss, the Cards hosted the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the final series of the regular season.

Game one got off to an iffy start. After giving up a solo homer in the first and a two-run homer in the second, Louisville finally responded with a home run from Tague Davis to put Louisville on the board.

Alex Alicea scampered home on a wild pitch in the third, and the fourth inning saw Eddie King Jr. hit a solo shot to bring the score to 4-3.

All the while Ethan Eberle held his own after the shaky start to keep the Deacons at three runs through six innings. But Justin West replaced him in the seventh, giving up two runs in the process.

Wake now held the lead 4-5, but Louisville’s offense fell silent. The Cards failed to score a run in the final five innings, and to add insult to injury Wake tacked on nine runs in the final inning of play.

With too big a hole to claw out of, Louisville lost 4-14.

Friday

Game two of the series began with what was becoming a tired cliché.

Louisville scored the first run on a sacrifice fly from Rose, but Wake scored a couple of solo homers in the second inning to take the lead.

But RBIs from Alicea and Davis in the third and fourth innings gave Louisville back the lead 3-2.

The next couple innings were slogs to get through for both sides, but little action to speak of. That all changed when Wake loaded up two baserunners and took one out of the park in just a matter of five pitches. The Deacons continued to rattle off hits, but the Cards got out of the inning with a double play before things got too bad.

Alicea was able to get on base and steal all the way to third the bottom of the same inning. Garret Pike got the hit to send him home and cut the deficit to just one run.

However, just when they were needed most, the bats fell silent once again. Needing just one run, Tagger Tyson was the only Cards able to get a hit and Rose was intentionally walked to avoid his bat.

Louisville lost the game 4-5, losing the series by just the second game.

Saturday

Without much more to lose than hope, the Cards started the final game of the regular season with a bang.

King hit a two-run homer off of an error in the first inning. Davis added to his freshman home run record with one in the second, sending him and Rose home.

King hit another homer in the third on an eight-pitch at bat. Wake finally scored a run in the top of the fourth, but in the bottom of the inning Collin Mowry hit a SAC fly to bring the score to 6-1.

Wake got into the power game with a two-run homer in the fifth.

While Rose got King across home plate on an error, Wake had a huge sixth inning to come storming back.

Eli Hoyt was the pitcher to relieve Patrick Forbes, and he gave up a double and a home run in his first two batters. Then he loaded up the based before being sent back to the bullpen. Colton Hartman closed out the inning, but not before giving up two runs to let Wake tie the game at 7-7.

Jake Munroe helped break the tie with a groundout that sent Kamau Neighbors home. Neighbors then hit an RBI-single the next inning that got Davis to third, and Davis ran home on a pickoff attempt that bounced of Neighbors’ arm.

The Cards then had a big eighth inning, loading up the bases and scoring off simple dink and dunk hits. The four-run inning gave the Cards a seven-run lead going into the ninth.

But the fun wouldn’t last forever as the Deacons brought it to Louisville in the final inning of play. The first two batters reached base, and a double sent the first runner home. A groundout sent the next runner home and the third in scoring position.

With the pressure mounting, West came in to close out the game and threw one strikeout to one hit and no runs to end the game.

Louisville won 14-9 and salvaged the series.

Silver linings, maybe

What was a team coming off of a major weekday victory in the Battle of the Barrel just a week-and-a-half ago now enters postseason play with a major limp in their step.

The loss to Bellarmine alone dropped Louisville seven spots in the NCAA’s RPI, and the lone series win against Wake kept the Cards from holding a six-game losing streak going into the ACC tournament.

This team is so up and down it’s nearly impossible to know which version of them will show up to the regionals.

Louisville falls all the way to the 10-seed in the ACC tournament and will face the 15-seeded Pitt Panthers. Most bracket projections also have Louisville as the 2-seed in Vanderbilt’s regional, so the Cards need to at least show a pulse in the conference tournament to ensure that spot holds.

Louisville ends the regular season at 35-20 on the season and15-15 in the ACC.

Photo Courtesy // Taris Smith, Louisville Athletics