No. 16 Baseball Welcomes Toledo for Home-Opening Series
February 24, 2011 | Baseball
Feb. 24, 2011
2011 Louisville Baseball Game Notes in PDF Format
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Following a 3-0 start to the season on the road at the BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge, the 16th-ranked Louisville baseball team will open its home slate with a three-game weekend series against Mid-American Conference foe Toledo.
The home and series opener is set for Friday at 3 p.m., ET at Jim Patterson Stadium. Game two is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m., while Sunday's series finale is set for noon. Admission is free for all three games of the weekend series.
Live play-by-play of the Friday and Saturday games can be heard on KOOL 1570 AM. CardsTV, available online at www.UofLSports.com, will provide live audio of the Friday and Saturday games and live video of the weekend finale on Sunday. Fans can follow the live pitch-by-pitch scoring online through the Gametracker feature at www.UofLSports.com.
In Friday's series opener, sophomore Matt Koch (1-0, 3.60 ERA) will take the mound for the Cardinals (3-0) against Toledo (0-3) sophomore righty Mike Hamann (0-0, 0.00). On Saturday, Louisville sophomore right-handed pitcher Justin Amlung (1-0, 0.00) will face Toledo junior lefty Kyle Shaw (0-1, 9.00), while Sunday's game will feature Cardinals' sophomore righty Mike Nastold (0-0, 0.00) against Rockets' junior righty Lincoln Rassi (0-0, 6.23).
Last Time Out for the Cardinals
The Louisville baseball team used strong pitching to open the 2011 season with wins over Michigan (6-3), Ohio State (2-0) and Minnesota (3-0) at the BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge. Louisville improved to 6-0 all-time in the BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge, which was won by the BIG EAST for the second straight year.
The Cardinals' pitching staff earned back-to-back shutouts on the final two days of the weekend and extended its streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 23. After giving up two runs in the fourth inning of the win over Michigan, Louisville allowed just 10 hits and no runs in the 23 innings that followed. Overall, the Cardinals allowed just two earned runs through the entire three-game weekend.
Amlung pitched a career-best 7.2 innings of shutout baseball in the 2-0 win over Ohio State. He allowed just four hits with four strikeouts in the best outing of his career. The 7.2 innings of work surpassed his previous career-long of 7.0 innings on May 28, 2010, against USF at the BIG EAST Tourney. He also extended his career shutout streak against OSU to 12.2 innings dating back to his 5.0 innings of scoreless work in Columbus on May 4, 2010.
Louisville Pitchers Riding 23-Inning Scoreless Streak
After allowing two runs in the fourth inning of the season-opening win over Michigan on Feb. 18, the Louisville pitching staff closed the weekend with 23 straight shutout innings and earned the Cardinals' first back-to-back shutouts since 2007. The scoreless streak is 12 innings shy of the school record of 35 shutout innings set in 1929. Overall, Louisville allowed just two earned runs in 27 innings at the BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge.
About Louisville Head Coach Dan McDonnell
In his fifth season as the Cardinals' head coach, Dan McDonnell is 188-77 for a .709 winning percentage. In his first four seasons, he led Louisville to impressive heights, including its first ever College World Series appearance in 2007, four consecutive 40-win seasons, a school record 50 wins in 2010 and a school record four straight NCAA Championship appearances. Louisville has also hosted NCAA post-season games in three of the last four seasons.
Toledo Series Opens Eight-Game Homestand for Cardinals
With the weekend series against Toledo, the Cardinals begin an eight-game homestand at Jim Patterson Stadium. Following Toledo, Louisville will host Morehead State for a mid-week game on Tuesday at 3 p.m. That will be followed by a three-game weekend series against Kent State on March 4-6 (3 p.m./1 p.m./1 p.m.). A mid-week game against Purdue on Tuesday, March 8 (3 p.m.) will conclude the Cardinals' longest homestand of 2011.
About Toledo
Toledo enters this weekend at 0-3 overall following two losses last weekend to Canisius (6-5, 7-6) and a loss to Creighton (5-1). The Rockets are led by head coach Cory Mee, who is 163-214 in his eighth season in Toledo. Last year, the Rockets were 34-22 overall and 19-8 in the MAC to finish tied for second in the league's West Division.
Promotions for Toledo Series
- For Friday's series opener against Toledo, $1 hot chocolate will be available throughout the game and $1 beers will be available through the completion of the fourth inning. - The first 200 fans through the gates at Jim Patterson Stadium each day of the series will receive free 2011 Louisville baseball schedule posters. - Former U of L baseball players will be throwing out honorary first pitches throughout the weekend.
New Louisville Baseball Dugout Club
The Louisville baseball program would like to introduce the new Louisville Baseball Dugout Club. The Dugout Club provides special opportunities to get fans more involved with Cardinal Baseball.
As demand and interest continue to grow, the Dugout Club is a great way to show your support. All members, regardless of membership level, will have the opportunity to reserve chairback seats for designated games, including the post season based on availability. Join now for as low as $25!
Please visit the Baseball page on www.uoflsports.com. Click on `Dugout Club Form' to find the additional benefits as well as the order form. If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact Vicky Frank at (502) 852-5791 or vefran01@louisville.edu.
