Louisville Rolls Kentucky 12-5 in Lexington
After dropping the first game to their in-state rival two weeks ago, Louisville was determined to even the series in Lexington on Tuesday night. The bats were hot early and often en route to a 12-5 victory over the Wildcats at Kentucky Proud Park. Louisville is now 12-3 against Kentucky over their last 15 meetings.
The Cardinals scored five runs in the first inning, follow by two runs in the second, third, and fourth to start the beatdown. Alex Binelas continues to swing a hot bat, going 3-5 at the plate with three more RBI. He now has 20 RBI in the last eight games. I think it is safe to say Binelas is seeing the ball well.
Dalton Rushing homered for his third straight game and is making it nearly impossible for the coaches to keep him out of the lineup. Expect to see a lot more from Rushing going forward. He finished tonight's game with three hits and four RBI.
Cooper Bowman also added three hits for the Cards who finished the game with 13 hits.
In an ultimate staff game, Louisville used nine different pitchers, led by Carter Lohman, who started the game and recorded arguably his best outing of the year. Lohman set the tone early, throwing the first two innings of shutout baseball with four strikeouts and did not allow a hit. Tate Kuehner, who the staff has relied on lately, tossed 1.1 innings, striking out two batters. Later in the game with the bases loaded in the 8th, Coach McDonnell went to Mr. Reliable, Adam Elliott, who limited the damage and shut the door in the 9th inning to secure the win.
After the win, Louisville moved from 59th to 50th in the RPI. They will have plenty of opportunities to improve their RPI with quad one series against Pittsburgh, Duke, North Carolina, and Miami still remaining. Here is their current RPI sheet.
Life does not get any easier for the Cardinals, who will host Pittsburgh this weekend at Jim Patterson Stadium. After being picked to finish dead last in the ACC, the Panthers are currently ranked 16th and are in second place in the Coastal Division with a 14-10 ACC record. First pitch is set for Friday at 3:00 PM and will be on the ACC Network. Yes, that means no streaming on Friday night.