University of Louisville
XAVIER
Cardinal Nine Completes Sweep of Xavier
March 18, 2007 | Baseball
March 18, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With the help of nine extra-base hits, the University of Louisville baseball team completed a three-game weekend sweep of Xavier, defeating the Musketeers 10-1 Sunday at Jim Patterson Stadium.
"It is a nice problem to have as a head coach, to walk out to the outfield with the postgame speech and have a host of players to choose from when picking an MVP," noted Cardinal skipper Dan McDonnell.
Six Louisville (12-7) players had multi-hit efforts, paced by Chris Cates, who was 4 for 4 with a double and two stolen bases.
The Musketeers (3-17) halted the Cardinals' season long shutout streak at 20 innings by punching home a run on Adam Pasono's sac fly for the first run of the series and a 1-0 lead.
Louisville evened the score in the bottom of the first on their way to 10 unanswered runs. Logan Johnson was hit by a pitch with one away and moved to third when Xavier pitcher Charlie Leesman's pickoff throw went wide of the bag at first. Daniel Burton's groundout to short plated Johnson.
In the second Alec Lowrey belted a one-out single to center and eventually scored on an RBI single by Cates to give the Cards their first lead of the day.
Burton singled and stole second ahead of an RBI double by Chris Dominguez in the third to make it 3-1.
Johnson smoked the first pitch of the bottom of the fifth over the fence in right for his team-leading seventh home run of the season. Burton followed with a walk and scored on Isaiah Howes' second double of the day to make it 5-1.
Cates belted a one-out double and stole third as Boomer Whiting walked and they both scored on a two-run double by Johnson. Burton then doubled Johnson home and moved to third on an error. Jorge Castillo's sac fly then set the stage for the fourth and fifth doubles of the inning in back-to-back fashion by Dominguez and Howes to cap the five-run inning.
Cardinal starter Tyler Mathis worked his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth and improved to 2-0 on the season, allowing the run on just three hits in six innings. He walked four and struck out one on the afternoon.
Kyle Hollander fanned four, giving up a hit and two walks in two innings of relief, while Trystan Magnuson allowed a hit and struck out one in extending his scoreless streak to 16.1 IP to open the season. Has allowed just 12 baserunners and struck out 17 in that span.
Xavier starter Charlie Leesman (0-2) surrendered eight runs - seven earned on 12 hits and two walks, striking out three in 5.1 IP while taking the loss. Mark Janszen was touched for two runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning. Dan Graham and David Hartman both worked a scoreless inning out of the pen for Xavier.
Johnson was 2 for 3 with three RBI and three runs scored, Burton went 2 for 4 with a walk and a stolen base, driving in a pair and scoring three runs. Dominguez added a pair of doubles, while Howes notched his third career game with three two-baggers. He is now tied for sixth in career doubles at U of L with 46. Johnson is tied for ninth with 44 and Burton and Cates both poised to crack into the top ten with 40 and 38 respectively.
Cates is ninth in career at bats (224) and one hit out of 10th in Cardinal history with 224. With two more stolen bases Whiting is now tied for eighth in single season steals with 24 - two away from his personal best of 26 set in 2005 and just six away from Curtis Watson's school record of 30 established in 1985. He is alone in third on the career list with 63 thefts.
Magnuson possesses the second lowest career ERA in school history, dropping his to 3.50.
The Cardinal pitching staff in the weekend sweep gave up just one run on 12 hits, striking out 20 in 27.0 innings - a .138 opponents average. The offense hit .413 with 12 doubles, a triple and four home runs while stealing nine bases against the Musketeers.
Louisville hosts Ball State Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. ET before opening a five-game road swing at Eastern Kentucky Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. The Cardinals open BIG EAST play the following weekend with a three-game set at Villanova.
