In front of a nearly empty stadium, Louisville hosted Bellarmine for their first ever NCAA DI baseball game, taking game one of the series, 5-1. Due to the snow and ice at the stadium, the Louisville athletic department made the decision not to allow fans to attend the opening series.

Bellarmine drew first blood in the top of the first inning with an RBI double off the bat of Chris Gambert. That would be the end of the offense for the Knights as they would only manage two more hits for the remaining 8 Innings.

Glenn Albanese (1-0) settled down after the first inning didn't allow the Knights to gain any momentum going forward. He finished with 5 Innings, 4 hits, 7 strikeouts, and 1 earned run. From there, Albanese turned things over to Tate Kuehner, who looked just as impressive, tossing 2.0 Innings, not allowing a single hit, and striking out 2 Bellarmine batters. Jared Poland and freshman Kaleb Corbett each threw an inning to close things out. Coach McDonnell was very complimentary of Corbett, going on to say he made it look easy and was efficient in his collegiate debut. McDonnell stressed how important the "bridge guys" are to the pitching staff and that many players could fit that role, depending on the situation.

Offensively, the Cards bats were hot early, scoring 5 runs in the first 4 innings of the game. Cam Masterman and Dalton Rushing hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning and the Knights never had a chance to get back in the game after that. The Cards recorded 8 hits, one by each starter, except Alex Binelas and Levi Usher. Masterman led the way with 2 hits and earned the MVP shirt for his play this afternoon. McDonnell compared Masterman to Adam Duvall, converting from an infielder to an outfielder, after a few impressive plays he made in left field today. The weather definitely played a factor in the game today, as a few fly balls caught at the warning track would have typically been home runs.

The Cards and Knights meet again tomorrow with a double header scheduled to begin at noon. Both games will be televised on ACC Network Extra and aired on 93.9 The Ville.