Louisville beats Kent State in NCAA Regional
As sophomore ace Kyle Funkhouser mowed through Kent State's lineup, the Cardinals scored early and often. The Cardinals advanced to Saturday's Winner's Bracket game against Kansas.
Funkhouser (13-2, 1.48 ERA) rolled to an 8.0 inning, four-hit performance. He held Kent State scoreless, striking out 10 of the 29 batters he faced.
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"He's one of the best arms in the Midwest," Duncan said. "... Funkhouser was just a little better than us today."
At one point, Funkhouser retired 15 straight batters. He issued only one walk.
"His fastball location was great today," Duncan said. "He was hitting both side of the plate, and he was locating that really well today."
As Funkhouser rolled, Louisville's bats put pressure on the Golden Flashes. The Cardinals scored two runs in the first, another run in the second and two more in the third. The Cardinals finished with five runs on seven hits as Kent State's Brain Clark (6-7, 3.77 ERA) took the loss.
"Louisville did a really good job of speeding us up in those first three innings," Kent State coach Jeff Duncan said. "They played small ball well, and moved runners around... We weren't able to recover after those first three innings."