By Derek DeBurger
No. 20 Louisville took down the No. 11 Vanderbilt Commodores for the Battle of the Barrel.
Vandy was the first to enter the scoring column with a wild pitch from Colton Hartman. Hartman wouldn’t make any more mistakes, but would get pulled after 1.2 innings upon giving up two hits and two walks.
Louisville finally scored their first run in the third when a hit from Lucas Moore sent George Baker home.
A sacrifice fly from Tague Davis in the fourth inning gave the Cards a 2-1 lead.
Louisville’s pitching held quite strong, but two pitches into the sixth inning Ty Starke gave up a solo home run to tie the game up at two apiece.
The Cards finally seized some momentum in the bottom of the sixth when Moore hit a single to send two runs home. Alex Alicea hit a single in the next at bat to bring the lead to 5-2.
The momentum, however, would be short lived as the Dores scored two unearned runs to cut the lead down to one run.
From there the game turned into a pitchers’ duel for the final few innings, with both sides trying and failing to crack the game open.
After the Cards failed to add any insurance runs, Jake Schweitzer closed out the top of the ninth with a strikeout, a ground out and a fly out.
Louisville held on to win 5-4.
Louisville escaped despite playing a ways away from their “A-game.” The Cards struck out nine times, with only Moore getting more than one hit going 2-for-4 with a walk and three RBIs.
The pitching staff was great, though, throwing a combined 12 strikeouts to just six hits.
The Cards snapped a two-game losing streak to Vandy, taking a 7-6 lead since the rivalry became official in 2012.
Louisville advances to 33-15 on the season.
Photo Courtesy // Taris Smith, Louisville Athletics
