By Derek DeBurger

Louisville rallied late, but lost in the first round of the ACC tournament to the Pitt Panthers.

With the one-and-done outing, the Cards continue their run of poor performance in conference tournaments.

Saving Arms?

TJ Schlageter started on the mound, and he would end his time on the mound very quickly.

After loading the bases and only recording one out, Schlageter walked home the first run. Ethan Eberle would take his place, but gave up a two-run double before the inning ended.

Eddie King Jr. would hit an RBI-double in the bottom of the first to get his great night started and put the Cards on the board, but Pitt would one-up him with two more runs in the second.

A solo home run in the third would end Eberle’s day, and the Panthers would continue their assault with runs in the next two innings to make the score 1-8.

Having already thrown four different pitchers, Louisville was looking down for the count early. But the Cards came storming back in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI-single from Lucas Moore and a three-run homer from King.

Another run batted in by Bayram Hot cut the lead down to just two runs.

Louisville had all the momentum after looking dead in the water, but one wry pitch from Wyatt Danilowicz gave Pitt a three-run homer to put the lead back up to five.

Going, going…

Down five with just two innings of play left, the cards were once again stacked against the Cards. But Zion Rose wasn’t done playing, getting a humble single to start a rally for the Cards.

Tague Davis got on base, and Hot singled to advance Davis to third and send Rose home.

Matt Klein came in to pinch hit and drew a walk to load the bases. Then Tagger Tyson hit a fielder’s choice to bring Davis home.

Moore got hit by a pitch to load the bases back up, and a walk from King took another run home.

Garret Pike capped off the inning with a two-RBI-single to bring Moore and Tanner Shiver home, tying the game at 11-11.

After snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, Louisville dropped it just as fast.

Brennyn Cutts walked the first batter, and after recording a strikeout he was pulled for Ty Starke. Starke then gave up a bomb, giving the lead right back to the Panthers.

The Cards got out of the inning, but came up completely empty handed in the bottom of the ninth.

Louisville lost 11-13.

Practice for the big dance

Dan McDonnell is a coach who doesn’t like to try too awful hard in conference tournaments. He isn’t opposed to winning them, just not at the expense of his bullpen.

That being said, the loss looks bad given the late-season collapse the Cards experienced.

There were still possitives to be gleaned from this loss. King played incredible, going 3-for-4 with a home run, two doubles, five RBI and a walk. The team also crawled out of a huge hole twice to remain competitive in the game.

Louisville’s fate is now in the hands of the NCAA selection committee. D1Baseball still projected the Cards as the 2-seed in Vanderbilt’s regional prior to the start of the tournament. Vandy is a team Louisville already beat once this season.

Photo Courtesy // Taris Smith, Louisville Athletics