After a shaky start to begin ACC play in Atlanta last weekend, Louisville (11-4, 4-2 ACC) bounced back to sweep #17 Boston College in their first conference series at Jim Patterson Stadium of 2021. This was by far Louisville’s best series on the season as the hitting and pitching were both in sync for the majority of the three-game stretch. The final piece the Cardinals need to correct is their defense, with 5 more errors this weekend, than led to 5 unearned runs. They are currently ranked just inside the top 200 with a .961 fielding percentage. Here is how the series went down:

Game 1

Louisville found themselves in a hole early on Friday night after giving up 3 unearned runs in the first two innings, but the pitching staff kept the Eagles off the scoreboard for the final 7 innings, on their way to a 7-3 victory. Michael Kirian (3-0) tossed 5 innings, allowing 3 runs (0 earned) on 6 hits and recorded 7 strikeouts. Adam Elliott (S, 1) gave up just one hit over the final 4 innings, only allowing one hit and striking out 5 batters. Cooper Bowman, Christian Knapczyk, and Kirian each recorded an error that led to the 3 unearned runs. Lucas Dunn led the way at the plate with 2 hits and 2 RBI as he continues to stay hot this season. Cam Masterman hit his 4th home run, a line drive over the right field fence to get things started for Louisville in the second. Entering the series, the Cards led the nation in stolen bases and added 4 more to their total on Friday night.

Game 2

The game on Saturday did not have quite the excitement we saw on Friday night but the Cards took care of business, taking the series on their way to a 5-0 victory. Glenn Albanese (2-0) returned after missing two starts and didn’t skip a beat. Albanese was on a limited pitch count in his return, going 4.1 innings, allowing just one hit and striking out 5 Eagles. He turned things over to Tate Kuehner, who walked the first two batters and was pulled immediately. From there, Evan Webster came in, throwing 3.2 innings, allowing just one hit and no runs before giving the ball to Kaleb Corbett for the final inning. Corbett has now thrown 10.1 innings on the season and has not allowed a run. Louisville tallied just 5 hits on the day, but made the most of the limited opportunities they had. Cooper Bowman led the way with 2 hits, one of which was a two-run home run in the 4th inning. The best news of the weekend was Alex Binleas, who seems to be seeing the ball better as the season progresses, hit his first home run of the season, a three-run bomb in the first inning. Binelas raised his average to .145, which is much improved from the .065 he was batting heading into the Georgia Tech series.

Game 3

The finale on Sunday was a slugfest, with the Cards out dueling Boston College 8-6. Every time one team scored, the other team had a counter punch. Luke Smith struggled for his second consecutive outing, throwing the first 3 innings, giving up 4 runs (2 earned), allowing 7 hits and one strikeout. Knapczyk had another big error in the second allowing two runs to score, but boy did he make up for it later. Smith turned things over to Garrett Schmeltz, throwing the next 2.2 innings, not allowing a run. Schmeltz gave the offense a few innings to make up some ground during the middle innings. He turned the ball over to Jack Perkins (1-0) who gave up the final 2 runs for the Eagles before Corbett came in for the second day in a row to close out the series. Corbett struck out two in the 9th and has raised his scoreless inning streak to 11.1 to begin his career. Louisville plated 13 hits, led by Henry Davis with 4, adding a home run in the 3rd inning to get the scoring started. Knapczyk had the biggest hit of the day, a two-run triple in the bottom of the 8th to give Louisville a 7-6 lead. He would later score on a squeeze bunt by Luke Brown.

Louisville travels to Richmond on Tuesday to take on the Colonels before heading to Raleigh next weekend for a three-game series at NC State. The Wolfpack (4-6, 1-5 ACC) have struggled so far this season but they have not had a favorable schedule, playing both Georgia Tech and Miami to begin ACC play.