Louisville Baseball Post-Game Notes

March 4, 2011

Louisville Team Notes

Louisville tied a school record by allowing four runs or fewer for the ninth consecutive game (all eight games this season plus the 2010 finale). The other nine-game stretches came in 1958 (April 23-May 9) and in 2007 (March 16-30).

Consecutive games allowing four runs or fewer, Louisville history
1. 9 - 6.7.10-Present (3-3-0-0-3-4-2-1-2)
1. 9 - 3.16.07-3.30.07 (0-0-1-2-4-1-2-3-3)
1. 9 - 4.23.58-5.9.58 (2-4-4-0-1-1-0-1-0)
4. 8 - 5.5.02-5.16.02 (4-1-3-3-1-1-2-1)
4. 8 - 5.24.60-5.2.61 (3-0-1-0-0-2-1-4)

U of L is the first BIG EAST team to allow its opponents four runs or less in nine straight contests since St. John's did so in 2007 (10 games from April 28-May 12).

Louisville has allowed 15 runs thus far in 2011, the fewest in school history for the first eight games of a season.

The Cards have yielded three earned runs or fewer and Louisville starters have allowed two earned runs or fewer in each of the nine games.

Righty Matt Koch extended the scoreless streak for Cardinal starting pitching to 13.1 innings before a Travis Shaw home run to lead off the seventh inning. Koch retired the first seven batters he faced, making it 11 in a row counting the final four batters of his last start against Toledo.

Koch lowered the ERA for Louisville starting pitching this season to 1.41. Cardinal relievers have not been much worse, putting together a 1.53 ERA so far this year (total team ERA of 1.46).

Louisville has posted a combined ERA of 1.45 in its last six wins over Kent State, allowing the Golden Flashes just 14 runs in those games.

The Cards have taken six of the past nine matchups between the two schools. All 21 of the all-time meetings have come with U of L as the home team (11 wins for Kent State).

Louisville pitchers have punched out 26 batters while walking just five over the past four ballgames. Cardinal hurlers have now registered more strikeouts than walks in each of the last 12 games (58 strikeouts and only 15 walks for the season).

Louisville Player Notes

Koch's 8.0-inning outing ties for the longest of his career. He also worked 8.0 frames last season against Georgetown (May 8), a game the Cards lost despite Koch's stellar outing (just one run on three hits).

Koch surrendered a home run for the seventh time in eight career starts. Four of the five earned runs Koch has allowed on the year have come via the long ball.

Cardinal reliever Derek Self had his streaks of seven straight scoreless relief outings and 10.1 consecutive scoreless innings of relief work snapped when Ben Klafczynski homered with one out in the ninth.

Self did pick up the win, however, to improve to 15-0 in his career.

Self has a 0.69 ERA over his past nine relief outings, totaling 13.0 innings.

Senior J.J. Ethel's game-winning hit was the third of his career, as the catcher also had a tie-breaking, two-run double in the 12th inning of a 6-1 win over Ole Miss (March 12) and a three-run, go-ahead bomb in the ninth inning of a 6-3 victory at Notre Dame (May 20) last season.

Freshman shortstop Alex Chittenden stole the first base of his career on his first career attempt in the game.

Left fielder Drew Haynes' fifth-inning strikeout was his first in a span of 31 plate appearances dating back to last season.

Junior Ryan Wright swiped his first base of the year on a botched pickoff play, giving him 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts over the past two seasons.

After pinch-running for Zak Wasserman in the seventh inning, freshman Ty Young proceeded to walk and single in his two plate appearances, scoring the Cards' first run in the ninth inning and the game-winning tally in the 11th. Young now has seven walks in 20 plate appearances this season to lead the BIG EAST.

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Alex Chittenden

Alex Chittenden

J.J. Ethel

J.J. Ethel

Drew Haynes

Drew Haynes

Matt Koch

Matt Koch

Derek Self

Derek Self

Zak Wasserman

Ryan Wright

Ty Young

Related Videos