Cardinal Nine Opens 2006 at #16 Miami On Wednesday
February 15, 2006 | Baseball
Feb. 15, 2006
MIAMI, Fla. - The University of Louisville visits four-time National Champion and 16th-ranked Miami on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. ET to open the 85th season of Cardinal Baseball. The team will remain in Miami for a three-game set at Florida Atlantic Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
On Wednesday, U of L junior B.J. Rosenberg (0-0, 0.00) will face Miami's Ricky Ortega (0-0, 2.25).
Friday's match-up with the Owls will begin at 7:00 p.m. ET and pit Louisville's Trystan Magnuson (0-0, 0.00) and FAU's Mickey Starey (0-1, 4.35). Newcomer David Torcise (0-0, 0.00) will go up against the Owl's Chris Salburg (1-0, 3.48) at 7:00 p.m. Saturday and it will be Mike Lynn (0-0, 0.00) for the Cards against Joel Schmal (1-1, 17.55) Sunday at Noon to close the series.
All games during the 2006 season will be broadcast live on www.UofLsports.com. In addition, WAVG 1450 AM in Louisville will carry all Cardinal home and postseason games. Sean Moth will be behind the microphone to handle the play-by-play for his fourth season with the Cards.
Seven starters and 22 letterwinners return to the Cardinal Nine from the 2005 team, including 12 pitchers.
You like to build a team defensively from the center. Senior Boomer Whiting will patrol center field after earning 2nd Team All-Conference honors in 2005. He hit .327 with nine doubles, four home runs, was 26-30 on steals and was errorless in the field.
In right, junior Daniel Burton will look to regain his 2004 form which saw him earn All-Freshman team honors. When Burton sees time at first base or in center field, fellow junior Logan Johnson will play the outfield. Johnson batted .325 with a team-best 15 doubles and drove in 32 runs in 42 starts. He gives the coaching staff some versatility, as he can also play in the infield. Freshman Alec Lowrey may also see time in right.
Junior Isaiah Howes went on a late-season tear in 2005 and hopes to pick up where he left off as the everyday left fielder. The Louisville PRP product had 13 extra-base hits and hit .415 in 16 games at Patterson Stadium. Transfer Pete Rodriguez may see time in left field and redshirt freshman Tyler Christensen is also an option in the outfield.
Sophomore Jorge Castillo started 42 games at first and will continue to carry the load there, along with Burton.
Senior Nick Haley, a career .326 hitter, will have his name on the lineup card every day at second base, barring injury. Johnson is very capable with the glove at the keystone spot should the need arise.
Haley's double-play partner Chris Cates continued to play spectacular defense at shortstop, and added a .305 average at the plate. Standing 5' 3", he was the shortest player in Division I baseball last season, and like last season he will be the everyday shortstop for the Cards.
At third base will stand as imposing a physical specimen as the Cards have ever had in the Red and Black, in 6'4", 230-pound freshman Chris Dominguez.
Rated the top high school third baseman by Baseball America in 2005 and a two-time HS All-American, he is also the most prized recruit to put on a Cardinal uniform, and will spend the season at the hot corner, providing some power from the right side of the plate. Dominguez can also play short. Johnson will be an option at third, as will freshman Casey Albanese.
Handling the pitching staff will be a trio of catchers, beginning with sophomore Derrick Alfonso, who threw out 15 of the 38 baserunners that attempted to steal against him, while picking off two more in starting 32 games behind the dish.
He will get support from a pair of seniors in Kyle Carden and Michael Urti. Both saw limited action in their first year in the Cardinal program, but should see an increase in playing time in 2006.
The Cardinal pitching staff lost just a single pitcher from last season who figured into a decision, returning 88% of the innings pitched.
Number one starter Rosenberg tossed a workmanlike 85 innings, posting a 5-4 record in 2005 returns to anchor the staff in his junior campaign.
Fellow junior Magnuson exploded onto the scene, posting a 5-5 mark in 20 outings and a 3.72 ERA. He will most likely be a weekend starter.
Junior lefty Torcise, a transfer from Duke will bring his ACC experience to the Cards, giving them a southpaw in the rotation.
Senior Brian Halford is 3rd in Cardinal history with 15 saves and tied for 5th in appearances (71), and will be the Cardinal closer.
Arguably the most successful season enjoyed by a Cardinal in 2005 was that of Griffin Bailey. The senior heads into the '06 slate coming off a year in which he was 4-1 with a 2.59 ERA and two saves in 48.2 innings, limiting opponents to a paltry .236 average.
Seniors Jon Harbridge and lefty Skylar Meade combined to go 7-2 last season and will give the Cardinals experienced options from both sides of the hill.
Junior Scott Jenkins was third on the team in innings pitched last season with 56.1 and should see similar time on the hill in '06.
Sophomores Lynn, Zack Pitts and lefty Jake Smith will all compete for innings and midweek starts.
Southpaw Gavin Logsdon and Ryne Mantooth utilized their first season in college to concentrate in the classroom and weight room last year, and will look to have that redshirt year pay some dividends in their first season of live competition in college.
Freshman Andrew Salguiero will also be an option for the Cards.
The pitchers will be under the tutelage of legendary pitching coach Lazer Collazo, in his first year with the Cardinals.
Head Coach Lelo Prado, who is in his 11th season as head coach of the Cardinals has 289 wins, just 20 behind Dr. John Heldman Jr. who is the winningest coach in U of L history. Prado will look to surpass the 300-win mark at U of L and Heldman Jr. during the 2006 season.
Right-hand man Brian Mundorf will spend his 11th season in the Red and Black and former Cardinal James McAuley will be in his second season as an assistant coach.
After 13 years in the Missouri Valley (1963-75), 20 seasons of Metro Conference baseball ('76-'95) and a ten-year tenure in Conference USA all 22 U of L athletic programs have made the move into the BIG EAST.
Cincinnati and South Florida are the baseball schools joining the Cardinals in the move from C-USA. They will join Connecticut, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, St. John's, Seton Hall, Villanova and West Virginia to create a 12-team league. The top eight will battle in a double-elimination tournament for an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.
On April 15, 2005 Jim Patterson Stadium made its long-awaited debut to a record crowd of 3,213 fans.
In 2006 not only will every Cardinal home game be played in "The Nest", but the adjacent building has been completed, featuring the baseball offices, three full-size pitching/batting cages, full club house facilities, weight room, equipment room, computer lab, training room, and laundry facilities, in addition to a rooftop overlook of the stadium.
Louisville's home opener will be on February 22 against Xavier, the first of an eight-game home stand in Jim Patterson Stadium where the Cards will also host Northwestern for three games and Eastern Michigan in a four-game set.
The Cardinals will travel to Athens, Georgia for three games, March 10-12 to face the Bulldogs, against whom the Cards took two of three last season.
Rutgers will be the conference opener for Louisville on March 24 at Patterson Stadium in the first of three over the weekend.
The Cards will also host Connecticut, Cincinnati, Villanova and Seton Hall in BIG EAST play, playing the Huskies, Wildcats and Pirates for the first time.
Road games in the BIG EAST will be at Georgetown, a team the Cards will play for the first time, South Florida, West Virginia and Notre Dame.
The 2006 schedule will also feature the traditional midweek home-and-home games against regional rivals Eastern Kentucky, Evansville, Kentucky and Western Kentucky, as well as home games against Murray State and Morehead State.
