Louisville Walks Off FSU in 10 Innings

After a disappointing loss to Kentucky on Tuesday night, the #7 Cardinals welcomed Florida State, the #17 team In the country, to Jim Patterson Stadium this weekend. If game one on Friday night was any indication what the rest of the series is going to look like, you better be glued to your TV this weekend.

Through the first five innings, neither team got into any offensive rhythm. Then in the bottom of the 6th, the Cardinals offense exploded for three runs. Christian Knapczyk started things off with a double and later scored on a single off the bat of Luke Brown. Just a few batters later, Alex Binelas, who had a home run robbed earlier in the game, singled up the middle to score Brown and Cooper Bowman. In the top of the 7th inning, the Noles answered with three runs of their own, two coming off an Elijah Cabell home run.

There would not be anymore runs scored until the bottom of the 10th, but there was plenty of drama before that. In the top of the 10th, Florida State had bases loaded with two outs. Adam Elliott hit a batter to force the go-ahead run. Henry Davis vehemently disagreed with the call, arguing that the batter leaned into the pitch. The umpires reviewed the call and after a long discussion, overturned the call and sent the batter back to the box. Two pitches later, Elliott ended the inning with a bases loaded strikeout.

Knapczyk, who seems to be in the middle of all the drama, led the bottom of the 10th inning with a walk. Two ground balls later, he was standing on third base with Levi Usher at the plate, after Henry Davis was intentionally walked. Usher drove a pitching right back up the middle scoring Knapczyk and take game one of the series against the Seminoles, 4-3.

Michael Kirian had another solid start for the Cards, tossing 7.0 Innings, giving up 3 runs and striking out 10 batters. Elliott picked up the victory after three strong shutout innings with five strikeouts.

Game 2 is set for tomorrow at 1:00 PM. Luke Seed (0-0, 1.50 ERA) will start for the Cards against Bryce Hubbart (3-2, 4.13 ERA).