Louisville Baseball Post-Game Notes
April 29, 2011 | Baseball
April 29, 2011
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Louisville Team Notes
- Louisville held the Hoyas to three runs or fewer for the ninth time in 10 all-time wins over Georgetown. GU has managed just seven runs in the last four meetings, with Cardinal hurlers putting together a 1.49 ERA over that stretch.
- The Cardinals lead the all-time series 10-3 and have taken four of the past five matchups.
- Louisville is now a win away from its ninth consecutive BIG EAST series win at home. The Cards have not lost a home set in league play since April 24-26, 2009, when Notre Dame took two of three at Jim Patterson Stadium.
- The current string of eight straight series wins at home in conference play is the 10th-longest active streak in Division I baseball. Oral Roberts heads up the list, having won 36 straight home series in the Summit League since 1998.
- Consecutive conference series wins at home, Division I (active, entering weekend)
Rank Streak School (Conference) Streak began Last lost to or split with1. 36* Oral Roberts (Summit) 4.26.98 Western Illinois (S) 2. 19 Coastal Carolina (Big South) 5.19.06 Birmingham-Southern (L) 3. 17 Bethune-Cookman (MEAC) 4.8.06 Delaware State (L) 4. 15 Manhattan (MAAC) 4.6.08 Le Moyne (L) 5. 14 Arizona State (Pac-10) 4.25.08 Oregon State (L) 6. 13 Texas State (Southland) 3.27.09 Sam Houston State (L) 7. 12 Virginia (ACC) 4.3.09 Miami (Fla.) (L) 8. 11 Charlotte (Atlantic 10) 4.11.09 Fordham (L) 9. 10 TCU (MWC) 4.3.09 San Diego State (L) 10. 8 Louisville (BIG EAST) 5.14.09 Notre Dame (L) 8 Connecticut (BIG EAST) 5.8.09 St. John's (L) 8 Cal State Fullerton (Big West) 5.1.09 Pacific (L)
* - ORU is 38-0-1 in league sets at home since joining the Summit League (then the Mid-Continent Conference) for the 1998 season. The Golden Eagles are 42-0-2 since their last series loss at home in league play, a two-game doubleheader sweep at the hands of Oklahoma City on April 21, 1984, as a member of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now the Horizon League).
- The Hoyas, meanwhile, are a defeat away from their 16th consecutive series loss on the road in BIG EAST play and their 13th straight BIG EAST series loss overall. Georgetown's last conference series win came in April last season (two of three against Notre Dame), while its last winning road series in league play was in March of 2008 (two of three at USF). GU has not taken a BIG EAST road series against a team entering the series above .500 in the conference since at least the 2002 season.
- Louisville improves to 2-15 this season when trailing after seven innings. Both wins have come via a game-winning RBI from J.J. Ethel (a walk-off double in the 11th against Kent State on March 4 and a go-ahead suicide squeeze in the eighth on Friday night).
- The Cards plated a first-inning run without allowing one for the third time in five games but for just the seventh time this season. For the year, Louisville is being outscored 37-13 in the opening frame.
- Louisville improves to 17-4 in 2011 when scoring first (6-14 when the opponent does) and 21-5 when notching as many or more hits than the opposition (2-13 otherwise).
- U of L saw its starting pitcher yield two earned runs or fewer for the 31st time in 41 games this year.
- The Cardinals snapped their eight-game losing streak when scoring five runs or fewer. Louisville's last winning effort with an offensive output of fewer than six runs came on April 9 at Cincinnati (5-3).
- Cardinal pitchers entered the game having walked 4+ batters in four straight games--a first for U of L since March 2009--but did not hand out a free pass on the night. In fact, Louisville pitchers threw 78 of their 112 pitches for strikes (69.6 percent).
- Louisville has now come from behind in eight of its last nine victories, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead in the eighth on Friday.
- The Cards won for just the fifth time in 16 games this season when committing multiple errors.
Louisville Player Notes
- Freshman backstop Kyle Gibson wasted little time in extending his hit streak to six games on Friday, smacking a ground-rule double into the right field corner in the first inning. Gibson was making his first career start higher than sixth in the lineup (hit in the two spot).
- Gibson is hitting .450 (9-for-20) with a pair of doubles during the streak.
- Gibson's fifth-inning strikeout was the first of his career, in his 31st plate appearance. He has put the ball in play in 30 of his 32 career trips to the plate, recording only one walk and one strikeout.
- One batter after Gibson, junior Ryan Wright extended his own hitting streak to six in the same fashion, also drilling a ground-rule two-bagger. Wright's streak has seen him compile an even .500 average (11-for-22) with three doubles, two home runs, six RBI, and four stolen bases. He is hitting .375 (24-for-64) with nine extra-base hits and 15 RBI in 16 BIG EAST games this season.
- Wright tied a season-high with two doubles in the game, doing so in his first two trips to the plate. He also doubled in his first two plate appearances in the season-opener against Michigan in St. Petersburg, Fla.
- Junior right-hander Derek Self set a new career high in innings pitched for the second consecutive outing, going 7.2 innings on the night and allowing only a single earned run. Self has now notched back-to-back quality starts (6.0 innings or more, three earned runs or less) after recording just one in his first 10 career starts.
- Self's outing lowered his season ERA to 1.49, the third-stingiest mark in the conference behind only those of UConn's Matt Barnes (1.41) and U of L's Justin Amlung (1.42).
- Self's punchout of Georgetown third sacker Sean Lamont in the second inning was his first in his last 35 batters faced. Self went 6.2 innings without a strikeout in his previous outing, making him the first Cardinal in over 10 years to work more than 6.0 innings in a game without a strikeout ( Denny Williams was the last, on April 18, 2001). Self only allowed three runs during the no-strikeout stretch, however, compiling a 3.12 ERA over that span.
- Self entered the game having walked six with only a single strikeout over his last four outings--covering 11.0 innings--but fanned four without a base on balls on Friday night.
- Self retired the first seven batters he faced for the second consecutive start. Last Thursday, Self had a perfect game through 4.0 innings, while on Friday night, Andy Lentz broke up Self's perfect outing with a one-out single in the third.
- With a second straight no-decision, Self remains in a 13th-place tie in Cardinal history with 16 career victories (to just one loss). A win will move Self--3-0 in his career in BIG EAST play--into a tie for sixth with seven other players.
- Making his 38th consecutive start in right field for the Cards, junior Stewart Ijames picked the perfect time to break out of his 2-for-17 slide, notching a game-tying RBI single in the eighth to set the stage for Ethel's squeeze. Entering the at bat, Ijames had gone 1-for-16 in opening games of the last five BIG EAST series.
- Ijames failed to draw a walk for the first time in six BIG EAST games. He was trying to become the first Cardinal to coax a free pass in six consecutive league contests since Nick Haley in 2006.
- Consecutive BIG EAST games with a walk, since 2006
1. 6 - Nick Haley - 5.12.06-5.20.06 (1-1-1-2-1-2)
2. 5 - Stewart Ijames - 4.16.11-4.23.11 (1-1-1-1-1)
2. 5 - Phil Wunderlich - 4.10.10-4.18.10 (1-1-2-1-1)
2. 5 - Andrew Clark - 4.4.09-4.11.09 (2-1-2-1-2)
2. 5 - Jeff Arnold - 5.11.08-3.20.09 (1-1-1-2-1)
2. 5 - Jorge Castillo - 5.7.06-5.18.06 (1-1-2-2-1)
2. 5 - Logan Johnson - 4.15.06-4.28.06 (1-2-1-2-1)
- Even without walking on Friday, Ijames has collected a base on balls in eight of the last 10 BIG EAST games, something no other Cardinal has done since Louisville joined the conference.
- Senior left fielder Drew Haynes jumped into a third-place tie on the Louisville career list with his 227th career appearance in a Cardinal uniform, moving even with Boomer Whiting (2003-07). Haynes is four games from tying Isaiah Howes (2004-07) for second on the list.
- Career games played, Louisville history
1. 241 - Chris Cates (2004-07)
2. 231 - Isaiah Howes (2004-07)
3. 227 - Drew Haynes (2008-Present)
3. 227 - Boomer Whiting (2003-07)
5. 225 - Daniel Burton (2004-07)
5. 225 - Logan Johnson (2004-07)
- Haynes has not struck out in his last 22 plate appearances dating back to the opener of the St. John's series.
- An 0-for-2 day at the plate ended senior J.J. Ethel's hitting streak at seven games. Ethel's hitting streaks of eight and seven this season are the longest by a Louisville catcher since Jeff Arnold put together a 15-gamer in 2008 (April 9-30).
- Ethel also had his streak of five consecutive multi-hit games at home come to a close. That streak, during which he hit .526 (10-for-19), was the longest by any Louisville player since Justin McClanahan had seven straight multi-hit contests at Jim Patterson Stadium from March 15-26, 2008.
- Consecutive multi-hit games at home, since 2008
1. 7 - Justin McClanahan - 3.15.08-3.26.08 (2-2-2-3-2-2-2)
2. 5 - J.J. Ethel - 4.1.11-4.23.11 (2-2-2-2-2)
2. 5 - Chris Dominguez - 4.24.09-5.6.09 (2-2-3-3-3)
2. 5 - Adam Duvall - 3.25.09-4.11.09 (2-3-2-3-2)
2. 5 - Chris Dominguez - 3.5.08-3.14.08 (2-2-3-2-3)
2. 5 - Justin McClanahan - 2.23.08-3.11.08 (2-2-4-2-3)
- Ethel's first-inning walk gives him four in his last five games after he did not record any over the previous 10. The free pass extended Ethel's on-base streak to nine games.
- Freshman lefty Cody Ege notched his seventh consecutive scoreless outing from the hill, striking out the only batter he faced in the eighth inning. Ege has struck out six of the last 12 batters he has faced.
- The save for junior Tony Zych was the 13th of his career, allowing him to take over sole possession of sixth place on the U of L all-time list (breaking a tie with Josh Ring, who had 12 from 2001-02). His 11 saves in 2011 give him the third-highest single-year total in Cardinal history. Only Neil Holland (17 last season) and Carlos Fernandez (12 in 2003) have registered more.
- Opponents have managed just one hit--a ground-ball single by Erick Fernandez with one out in Friday's final inning--in 15 at bats against Zych over his last four outings.
- Ege and Zych, the beneficiaries of the win and save, respectively, on the night, threw a combined 10 pitches. Ege needed four tosses to record the final out of the eighth, while Zych threw only six pitches to the four batters he faced in the ninth.
- Sophomore Kyle Grieshaber's pinch-hit walk in the eighth was his first base on balls since the Xavier game on March 18.
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