College Roundup: Louisville Rallies To Sweep Kentucky

Louisville might still be looking for that marquee series win away from home, but there’s no denying how utterly dominant the sixth-ranked Cardinals have been at Jim Patterson Stadium. They fought back from a 5-1 deficit against archrival Kentucky on Wednesday night, scoring six runs over the final three frames to beat the No. 19 Wildcats 7-6 and improve to 22-1 in their home park.

HOW THE TOP 25 FARED

(1) Miami: off

(2) Florida: won, 3-1, vs. Jacksonville

(3) Texas A&M: won, 14-1, vs Texas State

(4) Texas Christian: CCD at Abilene Christian

(5) Louisiana State: off

(6) Louisville: won, 7-6, vs. (19) Kentucky

(7) Mississippi State: off

(8) Vanderbilt: won, 8-6, vs. Central Arkansas

(9) UC Santa Barbara: off

(10) Texas Tech: won, 7-4, at New Mexico

(11) Florida State: won, 8-5, vs. Stetson

(12) South Carolina: off

(13) Rice: off

(14) N.C. State: lost, 15-3, at East Carolina

(15) Mississippi: won, 7-0, at Memphis

(16) North Carolina: lost, 6-3, vs. (25) Coastal Carolina

(17) Long Beach State: lost, 8-3, at Southern California

(18) Michigan: off

(19) Kentucky: lost, 7-6, at (6) Louisville

(20) California: won, 5-2, vs. Stanford

(21) Florida Atlantic: won, 5-2, vs. Florida Gulf Coast

(22) Oregon State: off

(23) Michigan State: lost, 1-0, vs. Notre Dame

(24) Louisiana-Lafayette: won, 4-3, vs. Nicholls State

(25) Coastal Carolina: won, 6-3, at (16) North Carolina

Corey Ray’s two-run homer highlighted Louisville’s three-run bottom of the seventh, and the Cards leveled things at 6-6 with two more in the bottom of the eighth. That set the stage for Devin Hairston’s walk-off single up the middle in the bottom of the ninth, scoring Colin Lyman from second. The win is Louisville’s fifth straight against the Wildcats, and the Cards become the second D-I team to reach the 30-win mark this season, following Florida. It was also their second consecutive walkoff win after Ray hit a game winner on Sunday to finish a sweep of Clemson.

“Our back was against the wall,” Louisville coach Dan McDonnell told reporters, “because you know their strength is in that bullpen and it’s in those back few guys that’ve had such a good year for them. So, give our kids a lot of credit because it’s not easy to score runs against those guys.”

In the night’s other matchup of ranked teams, No. 25 Coastal Carolina scored four runs in the top of the first, and that proved to be enough in an eventual 6-3 win at No. 16 North Carolina. Connor Owings’ two-run triple was the biggest blow in the first-inning rally as the Chanticleers knocked around UNC’s Hunter Williams (2.1 IP, 7 H, 6 ER). Coastal had just two hits over the final six innings of the game, but the Chants’ relief duo of Austin Kitchen and Mike Morrison combined to limit UNC to just one run on two hits over the game’s final 4 2/3 innings to preserve the win.

The win is Coastal’s fourth against an ACC school this year—the first away from home—and the Chants have won 15 of their last 16 overall. On the flip side, what’s been a trying month of April for UNC continued. The Heels are just 5-8 in April and they haven’t won more than two in a row since a six-game winning streak March 15-22.

Elsewhere, No. 2 Florida got a push from Jacksonville but was able to grind out a 3-1 win behind a combined six innings of shutout relief from a quartet of pitchers. Another top SEC squad that had to work harder than expected was No. 8 Vanderbilt, which fell into an early 3-0 hole against 15-20 Central Arkansas and played to a 6-6 tie through seven innings. Tyler Campbell’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth finally gave the Commodores the lead for good in an 8-6 win.

Texas Tech continued its red-hot play with a back-and-forth 7-4 win on the road at Mountain West leader New Mexico in the first of a two-game set. The 10th-ranked Red Raiders outhit UNM 14-7 on the night, but the score was nonetheless tied 4-4 after eight innings. TTU finally seized control for good with a three-run rally in the top of the ninth.

Eric Gutierrez got things started with a single up the middle, his third hit of the game, and eventually scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch. Subsequent RBI singles by Hunter Hargrove and Tanner Gardner added insurance. The win is Tech’s 10th straight and 14th in its past 15 games.