Louisville baseball loses via walk-off 4-3 in CWS opener

By Derek DeBurger

Louisville dropped their opening game of the College World Series to the Oregon State Beavers in a heartbreaker.

Gut punch

The game got off to an old fashioned pitcher’s duel with Patrick Forbes and Dax Whitney dealing through the first three innings.

It wasn’t until the fourth inning that Louisville was able to get some action on offense, getting runners on first and second. But a Strikeout from Garret Pike ended the half-inning with no runs sent home.

The bottom of that same inning was when the Beavers first struck gold, getting two runs with only a single out. Forbes was able to get out of his jam, though, getting a punch out and a ground out to end the inning.

Louisville was able to cut into the deficit in the sixth, sending Kamau Neighbors home on a base hit from Jake Munroe. Unfortunately, with a runner at third, Louisville was held to one run to end the inning down 2-1.

It was easy come easy go for the Cards, as in the bottom of the same inning the Beavs were able to load the bases and Forbes left the mound. Justin West took up the mantle but gave up a run in his first at bat, although the earned run was attributed to Forbes.

West settled down, however, and get out of the inning with just a two-run hole for the Cards.

Again in the seventh, the Cards got two runners in scoring position before failing to get another base runner for the rest of the inning.

Down to runs in the ninth inning, the Cards were down to do-or-die mode.

As the leadoff batter, Zion Rose hit a triple to get the rally going. Tague Davis then hit a long infield single to get on base and send Rose home.

Dan McDonnell pulled Davis to pinch run Tanner Shiver, but Shiver got picked off at second on a steal attempt for the first out of the inning.

Alex Alicea then hit into a routine grounder, but the short stop had a throwing error that allowed Alicea to nab second, and another error from the Oregon State catcher let Alicea go all the way to third.

Neighbors then hit a single to send Alicea home and tie the game at 3-3.

With Louisville now three outs away from extra innings, Jake Schweitzer came in to potentially close out the game. And a ground quickly gave the Cards the first out and kept up the momentum.

Unfortunately, the next batter got aboard on a single, and a line drive to the corner of the outfield saw the winning run go from first all the way home.

Louisville lost on a walk-off 4-3.