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After what is now a historic season for University of Louisville baseball, the team can add one more accolade to its growing list of achievements: the first trip in school history to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
After a 3-2 loss to Oklahoma State University yesterday, the Cards came back in force winning 20-2 tonight.
The game started fast with U of L getting a run in the first inning, and with style. Senior outfielders Boomer Whiting and Isaiah Howes got early steals, both to second base. Whiting got the run and senior first baseman Daniel Burton was marked for the RBI.
The Cards exploded in the second inning, adding five runs. Senior outfielder Pete Rodriguez sparked the scoring with a homerun, batting in with him freshman third baseman Chris Dominguez who had just hit a single. Senior shortstop Chris Cates, senior second baseman Logan Johnson and Whiting all scored as well.
With the tally at 6-0 going into the third inning, the Cards didn’t stop the attack. Over the next five innings Louisville put away 14 runs and held the Cowboys to two.
OSU looked deep into its pitching staff and pulled up sophomore Andrew Oliver, the team’s eighth pitcher of the game, in the fifth inning. Oliver, the team’s eighth pitcher of the game, lasted the longest of the Cowboy pitchers, playing just over three innings; however he also handed one of the biggest plays of the season to the Cardinals.
The eighth inning started with Cates hitting a double to left field, which was then followed by a walk for Whiting to fill the first base. Johnson stepped up and was hit by pitch, so it forced the base loaded. Burton stepped up but fouled out with the bases still loaded.
Howes then moved to the plate and hit a rarely seen grand slam homerun, marking four RBIs. Notably, all four of the runners who scored were seniors playing the final home game of their U of L careers in Jim Patterson Stadium.
The Cards will face Rice University in Omaha in the College World Series, a double-elimination tournament.
