University of Louisville
St. John's
No. 28 Baseball Drops Opener at St. John's
April 15, 2011 | Baseball
April 15, 2011
QUEENS, N.Y. - The 28th-ranked Louisville baseball team opened its weekend series at St. John's with an 8-2 loss on Friday afternoon at Jack Kaiser Stadium.
With their third straight loss overall, the Cardinals dropped to 20-13 on the season and 6-4 in BIG EAST action, while the Red Storm improved to 17-13 overall and 6-4 in league games \with the win. The series will continue on Saturday at noon, ET, while Sunday's weekend finale is also set for a noon start.
Louisville opened the scoring in Friday's game with a run in the first inning as freshman outfielder Cole Sturgeon (Owensboro, Ky./Owensboro Catholic HS) led off with a single off St. John's starter Kyle Hansen and scored moments later on an RBI double down the right field line by freshman infielder Ty Young (Coatesville, Pa./Malvern Prep) for the 1-0 lead.
However, that would be the only lead of the day for the Cardinals as the Red Storm answered with two runs in the bottom of the first to take the lead for good at 2-1. Centerfielder Jimmy Brennan, who led off the inning by reaching base on the first of Louisville's five errors, scored the first run later in the inning on a wild pitch by Cards' starter Matt Koch (Cherokee, Iowa/Washington HS). Second baseman Matt Wessinger scored the run of the inning on an RBI single through the right side by first baseman Paul Karmas.
St. John's added two more runs in the second inning on RBI singles by shortstop Joe Panik and leftfielder Jeremy Baltz for the 4-1 lead. The Cardinals cut the deficit to 4-2 in the third inning as Young reached base with a leadoff walk, moved to third on a single to right field by junior second baseman Ryan Wright (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead HS) and scored on an RBI groundball by junior outfielder Stewart Ijames (Owensboro, Ky./Owensboro Catholic HS).
Unfortunately, that was as close as Louisville would be the rest of the way as St. John's plated four runs, including three unearned, on four hits and four Louisville errors in the fourth inning to put the game out of reach.
Koch took the loss for the Cardinals to fall to 4-4 on the season after allowing four earned runs and eight total runs on a career-high 11 hits with three strikeouts and two walks in 4.0 innings, while Hansen earned the win for the Red Storm and improved to 5-3 after he allowed two runs on six hits with five strikeouts and four walks in 6.1 innings.
At the plate, Sturgeon and sophomore first baseman Zak Wasserman (Stevensville, Mich./Lakeshore HS) had two hits each for Louisville, while Wessinger and Karmas finished with three hits each for St. John's. Wessinger and Brennan also scored three runs each in the winning effort for the Red Storm.
Louisville Notes
- With the loss, Louisville trails 9-6 in the all-time series with St. John's, which has won three straight overall in the series.
- The Cardinals have been outscored 30-9 in the first inning this season, including a 2-1 deficit on Friday.
- Louisville dropped to 14-3 this season when scoring first with Friday's defeat.
- In 10 of their 13 losses this season, the Cardinals have allowed their opponents to score in the first inning.
- The Cardinals' five errors on Friday matched a season-high first set in a 6-4 loss to Purdue on March 8.
- The three-game losing skid matches the longest of the season for Louisville.
