South Florida Ends Cardinals' Baseball Season
July 14, 2000 | Baseball
May 18, 2000
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Louisville's baseball season was ended in a 10-6 loss to South Florida in the Conference USA Championships Thursday.
South Florida (29-28) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first on a walk, two hits and an error. Louisville cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning after centerfielder Mike Hook singled to lead off, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on a sacrifice fly to right by rightfielder Paul Brown, making it 2-1.
Louisville then evened things up in the second on an RBI single by leftfielder Dave Williams Jr., scoring first baseman Troy Hilpp who led off with a walk and stole second.
The Bulls took the lead back with a six-run explosion in the top half of the third inning. With one out, the Bulls put together five singles, a walk and a hit batter to chase U of L starter Sean Green (0-10). In relief Brad Mattingly surrendered two more RBI singles before inducing a bases-loaded double play to end the inning. Bulls leftfielder Bo Bentley drove in two, and DH Chris Cuccia, shortstop Johnny Raburn and centerfielder Mike Cunningham each drove in runs with singles. The first six batters of the inning scored for USF to put them up 8-2.
South Florida upped its lead to 10-2 with a two-run single by first baseman Daniel Boyd in the fifth off Mattingly.
The Cards chipped away at the South Florida lead with three runs in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by Hilpp and a two-run single by second baseman Matt Jarboe.
Following a two-out double, Williams scored the final Cardinal run of the season on a wild pitch to make the final tally 10-6.
Green finished the game having pitched 2.1 innings in which he gave up eight runs on eight hits and three walks.
Bulls starter John Vigue tossed six innings, giving up five runs on nine hits, five walks and two strikeouts to pick up his 10th win of the season.
Williams and Jarboe were a combined 5-for-8 with three RBI and a run scored. Freshman Carlos Fernandez entered the game in the fifth and tossed 4.1 scoreless innings, giving up five hits and one walk to go with a strikeout.
Louisville ends the season with a 17-37-1 record overall, losing both games in the tournament as the #8 seed.
