University of Louisville
at Western Kentucky
Cardinal Nine Conquers Hilltoppers
April 06, 2004 | Baseball
April 6, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, KY - The University of Louisville baseball team jumped out to a 7-0 lead, and held on to beat Western Kentucky 9-6 at Denes Field Tuesday.
The Cardinals(17-11) opened a 5-0 lead with a five run second inning.
With one out, freshman Daniel Burton walked, and Isaiah Howes followed with a single to left.
An out later Boomer Whiting bunted for a single to load the bases for Nick Haley.
Haley singled home Burton, extending his hit streak to a career-high 19 games and making it 1-0 Cards.
Chris Cates singled home another run, and everyone was safe on an RBI fielder's choice by Mark Jurich. Catcher Ron Braun singled up the middle, driving home two more runs.
Burton reached on an error to open the third and Howes hammered an 0-2 pitch down the left field line for his second home run of the season and a 7-0 U of L advantage.
Western(16-17) chipped away with one in the third, a three-run fourth and two more in the fifth, making it a one-run game.
Jurich hit his second double of the game with one out in the seventh, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Braun grounder that was mishandled by shortstop Matt Ransdell.
An RBI triple by Ryan McKinnon scored Braun and upped the advantage to 9-6.
Chase Cruse (2-0) earned the win, tossing 2.2 innings of three-hit ball walking one and striking out a pair.
Skylar Meade gave up five runs, four earned, on six hits to go with two strikeouts in 4.1 innings in his first start of his career.
He was relieved by Jon Harbridge who surrendered a run on two hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning.
Freshman Justin Valdes entered with the bases loaded and two out in the eighth and struck out clean-up hitter Matt Gunning to end the threat. He followed with a perfect ninth, adding another strikeout and earning his first career save in his first career relief outing.
Western starter Greg Durr (1-3) took the loss, allowing seven runs, six earned, on seven hits and a walk, striking out one in two innings.
Jurich's two doubles give him 50 in his Cardinal career, fourth in history and six off of the all-time mark.
Braun drove in three runs, while Jurich and Howes each had two hits. Louisville was outhit by WKU 11-9.
The win splits the season series between the two teams.
Louisville will be in New Orleans over the weekend for a three-game C-USA series against Tulane beginning Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. Audio broadcasts of all three games can be heard on UofLSports.com through Yahoo broadcast.
