University of Louisville
Kentucky
Slow Start Dooms Baseball in Road Loss to Kentucky
April 26, 2011 | Baseball
April 26, 2011
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Faced with an early deficit, the Louisville baseball was never able to recover in a 7-1 road loss to rival Kentucky on Tuesday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
With the loss, the Cardinals fell to 22-18 overall, while the Wildcats improved to 20-22 on the season with the victory. Tuesday's defeat, combined with the 3-2 loss on April 12, marked the first time Louisville has been swept in the season series against Kentucky since 2006.
The Wildcats scored three runs in the first inning and added another in the second against Louisville sophomore right-hander Mike Nastold (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS), who struggled in his two innings of work. Nastold took the loss and dropped to 3-5 on the season after allowing four earned runs on five hits and two walks in his 10th start of the season. On the other side, sophomore right-hander Jordan Cooper allowed only one unearned run on five hits with three walks and five strikeouts in 6.2 innings to earn the win for the Wildcats and improve to 3-1 this season.
At the plate, designated hitter Braden Kapteyn led UK going 3-for-4 with his sixth home run of the season and two runs scored, while leftfielder Chad Wright was 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs in the win. For Louisville, Ryan Seiz (Perkasie, Pa./Christopher Dock HS) was the only Cardinal with more than one hit as the freshman finished 2-for-3 with a run scored. On the mound, freshman right-hander Chad Green (Effingham, Ill./Effingham HS) came out of the Louisville bullpen to pitch 3.0 innings of shutout relief allowing only one hit with three strikeouts.
After the Cardinals went quietly in the top of the first inning against Cooper, the Wildcats took command in the bottom of the frame with the three runs on four hits against Nastold. The inning started with a double to left center by Wright, who then scored on an RBI double down the left field line by shortstop Taylor Black for the 1-0 lead. The scoring continued two batters later as Black scored from third on an RBI sacrifice fly by rightfielder J.T. Riddle for the second run of the inning. The final run of the inning was plated on an RBI single up the middle by catcher Michael Williams for the 3-0 advantage.
An inning later, Kentucky pushed its lead to 4-0 as Kapteyn hammered a 2-1 pitch from Nastold out to left center for the home run.
Following three scoreless innings, the Wildcats pushed their advantage to 5-0 in the bottom of the sixth as first baseman Luke Maile hit his team-leading seventh home run of the season, a solo shot to left on a 2-1 pitch from Louisville freshman righty Dace Kime (Defiance, Ohio/Defiance HS).
Louisville broke through for an unearned run in the seventh as Seiz reached base with a two-out, infield single off Cooper, moved to second on an infield single by sophomore Kyle Grieshaber (Chesterfield, Mo./Marquette HS), advanced to third on a throwing error by Black at shortstop and scored on a pinch hit RBI single by freshman Kyle Gibson (Henderson, Ky./Henderson County HS) to cut the deficit to 5-1. However, the Wildcats pushed their lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI sacrifice fly to right by third baseman Thomas McCarthy to score Wright. Kentucky added an unearned run in the eighth inning against sophomore righty Curtis McCombs (Louisville, Ky./Ballard HS) for the final 7-1 margin.
With the 3-0 first inning deficit on Tuesday, Louisville has been outscored 37-12 in the first inning this season. The Cardinals are 6-14 when their opponents score first and 0-10 when allowing six or more runs.
Up next, Louisville will return home to host a three-game weekend series against BIG EAST Conference foe Georgetown, which opens on Friday at 6 p.m., ET at Jim Patterson Stadium. The series will continue on Saturday at 1 p.m., while Sunday's series finale is set for 1 p.m. Admission is free for the entire weekend.
