By Clive McCullough

Louisville baseball took on Stanford Cardinal for a Cardinal vs. Cardinals matchup.

Both teams have failed to meet pre-season expectations, and both come into the weekend ranked towards the bottom in the ACC for team ERA. However, the story coming into the weekend was each team’s prolific sophomore first baseman: Louisville’s Tague Davis who led the nation in RBI’s and Rintaro Sasaki, the former Japanese prep star who chose college baseball over Nippon Professional Baseball.

Friday, April 10

The first game of the series started with Louisville taking a two-run lead in the first. This would be the Cardinals’ only runs scored Friday night.

Stanford didn’t get their scoring started until the third inning when a 30-minute torrential downpour started while Louisville’s starter Wyatt Danilowicz was pitching. Danilowicz threw close to 80 pitches in the first three innings, but because of the rain, Louisville surrendered five runs and Stanford took a commanding lead. Unfortunately for Louisville, whose starting pitching had struggled this year, Danilowicz was the only consistent and reliable starter for the Cardinals.

Danilowicz gave up eight runs and five earned, getting pulled before the end of the fifth.

Nothing much happened until the 9th inning, when Japanese baseball prodigy Rintaro Sasaki hit a dagger grand slam to completely seal the game for Stanford. Louisville dropped the first game of the series 12-2.

Saturday, April 11

Louisville started the second game of the series hot. The crowd was electrified by the attendance of Louisville Men’s Basketball coach Pat Kelsey and two transfer portal recruits, Flory Bidunga from Kansas and Jackson Shelstead from Oregon.

The Cardinals seemingly used this energy from the crowd, scoring four runs in the first. Later in the third inning, freshman second baseman Kade Elam hit a three-run home run that propelled the Cardinals to an early 7-0 lead. Later in the fourth, Louisville took an even more commanding 10-0 lead off hits from Bayram Hot and Lucas Moore.

Eberle pitched a great game, going six innings with seven strikeouts and no runs surrendered. His fastball and slider helped him ahead in counts and then finish with his offspeed pitches. Jack Schweitzer relieved for one inning to finish the game. He got out of a self-inflicted bases loaded jam to end the game early in seven innings via a run rule. Louisville won 10-0.

Sunday, April 12

Sunday was a classic rubber match between two programs that desperately needed a series win to bolster advanced metrics and their resume ahead of the NCAA College World Series.

Louisville sought a quality start out of Colton Hartman, while Stanford turned to Nick Dugan. Stanford struck first, scoring two runs in the top of the second inning and ended Hartman’s start after only 1.2 innings. Ty Starke would come into the game and provide much needed stability. He pitched 2.2 innings and gave up no runs.

Louisville bounced back, scoring two runs in the third inning and a run in the fourth and fifth. This gave the Cards a 4-2 lead. While Stanford scored one run in top of the sixth, Louisville’s bullpen held a 4-3 lead until the top of the ninth inning.

Stanford’s Philip Cheong led off and got on base easily. He then quickly advanced to third on a Rintaro Sasaki single. Cheong had been quiet all game, going 0-3 before this at-bat.

With runners on the corners, Teddy Toekheim hit into a double play in which Cheong would originally score from third base. However, this ruling was overturned for base runner interference at 2nd base. This mean Cheong would not be allowed to score and was sent back to third base while both outs still counted, leaving Louisville with a 4-3 lead, two outs and a runner on third.

After a walk for Charlie Bates, Shortstop JJ Moran, on a 0-1 count, hit an absolutely towering three-run homer 453 feet to left field. He let the Louisville dugout know how he felt, flipping his bat with an animated trot around the bases.

Louisville found their way to the bottom of the ninth, but three straight groundouts ended the game before the Cardinals even had a chance to process it. Stanford avoided facing the nation’s RBI leader, Tauge Davis, narrowly tagging Zion Rose out at first even after a heroic dive.

The Cards lost 6-4.

Offensive woes continue

Louisville’s offense, which is typically propelled by Tauge Davis, saw him be ineffective this series batting 2-10 with only one RBI. Without consistency, Louisville’s offense has dropped many high scoring affairs throughout the season. Strong pitching kept them in the fight on Saturday and Sunday, however an unfortunate chain of events gave the Stanford Cardinal the series victory.

The cards will take on Western Kentucky University at 6 p.m. on Tuesday April 14.

Photo Courtesy Taris Smith / Louisville Athletics