Louisville Baseball Post-Game Notes

May 1, 2011

Louisville Team Notes

The Louisville victory was its sixth in the past seven meetings over Georgetown, with the only loss coming in 10 innings last season (March 8). U of L leads the all-time series 12-3, including a 5-1 mark at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Georgetown has managed only 14 runs in the teams' last two series combined. In the 15 games of the all-time series, GU has scored five or more runs on just three occasions.

The Cardinals completed their ninth consecutive BIG EAST series win at home--no league team has taken a series from U of L at Jim Patterson Stadium since Notre Dame did so from April 24-26, 2009 (two of three). The nine straight conference series wins at home ties for the 10th-longest active string in the nation.

Consecutive conference series wins at home, Division I (active)

Rank    Streak  School (Conference)     Streak began    Last lost to or split with

1. 36* Oral Roberts (Summit) 4.26.98 Western Illinois (S) 2. 20^ 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) 14^ 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. 9^ Louisville (BIG EAST) 5.14.09 Notre Dame (L) 11. 8 Cal State Fullerton (Big West) 5.1.09 Pacific (L) 8 Connecticut (BIG EAST) 5.8.09 St. John's (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).

^ - Includes home series win this weekend (as of end of Louisville game).

Georgetown dropped its 13th straight BIG EAST series overall and its 16th straight on the road. The Hoyas have not won a league set since taking two of three from Notre Dame from April 1-3, 2010, and have not taken one on the opponent's home field since March 28-30, 2008 (two of three at South Florida).

The Hoyas have not won a BIG EAST road series against a team entering the weekend over .500 in the league standings since at least the 2002 season.

Louisville notched its first BIG EAST sweep of the season, its first since taking all three at Notre Dame last season (May 20-22) and its first at home in exactly one year (Rutgers from April 30-May 1).

The Cards yielded multiple runs in the first inning for the 12th time this season, winning for only the second time in those games. Louisville's only other win came on April 2 against West Virginia, when the Mountaineers scored twice in the first before U of L closed out the game with eight unanswered runs.

Louisville has come from behind in nine of its last 11 victories, erasing a pair of two-run deficits (3-1 and 4-2) on Sunday.

U of L's six-run seventh inning was its biggest of the year, surpassing the six different five-run frames the Cards had put together previously. Louisville has not scored more runs in one inning since plating eight in the first inning of a win over Eastern Kentucky on May 18, 2010.

The Cardinals have now notched an inning of five runs or more four times in the last two BIG EAST series.

Louisville outscored the Hoyas 7-0 from the fifth inning on in the game. On the season, the Cards are outscoring the opposition 126-71 after the fourth inning (compared to being outscored 96-77 in innings 1-4).

U of L improves to 10-1 this season when committing zero errors.

Louisville Player Notes

Georgetown's first-inning tally in the game was the first earned run allowed by freshman Jeff Thompson in his last 10.0 innings as a starter. Thompson had not allowed an earned run in a starting effort since the second inning of his outing against Western Kentucky on March 29. He entered the contest as the only Louisville freshman in the last 11 years to yield an earned run or less in four consecutive starts.

Thompson entered the game with career ERAs of 0.95 and 0.60 at home and as a starter, respectively, but saw those marks rise to 2.53 and 2.60 after allowing four earned runs on seven hits in 2.1 innings. Coming in, Thompson had compiled an ERA of 0.69 this season outside of his 1.0 inning, six-run relief outing against Western Kentucky on April 5. He had yielded only one extra-base hit outside of that game, but gave up two doubles and a homer on Sunday afternoon.

In the first eight outings of his career, Thompson allowed just seven hits in 17.2 innings for a .117 opponent batting average and an identical .117 slugging clip (no extra-base hits). But over his past five games, he has permitted 27 hits in 11.2 innings for an opponent hitting clip of .466 (27-for-58) and an opponent slugging percentage of .741.

Reliever Chad Green followed Thompson on the mound and extended his scoreless streak to 8.1 innings with 3.1 frames of shutout ball. Green has allowed just one earned run (0.53 ERA) in seven career outings at Jim Patterson Stadium, covering 17.0 innings.

Chad Green at home, 2011 season

ERA IP  H   R   ER  BB  SO

0.53 17.0 11 2 1 5 6

Senior J.J. Ethel drove in a run for the fifth consecutive BIG EAST game, notching a sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the first. Ethel drove in three runs in the series without benefit of a hit; his run-scoring plate appearances included the go-ahead suicide squeeze in the eighth inning on Friday, a fielder's choice to bring home the Cards' seventh run on Saturday, and the sac fly on Sunday.

Ethel's RBI string comes after he drove in one run in his last 19 games entering the series. He is the first Louisville player to drive in runs in five straight league games since current junior Ryan Wright did so in seven straight last season (April 30-May 15).

Wright extended his hit streak to eight games with a first-inning single. That string ties for the longest by any Cardinal since he and current junior Stewart Ijames both had 13-game hitting streaks snapped in Louisville's final BIG EAST Tournament contest last season.

The streak ties for the third longest of Wright's career, behind only his two 13-game streaks (one in 2009 and one last year). He now has six career hit streaks of eight games or longer.

Ryan Wright hit streaks of 8+ games, career
13 - 5.5.10-5.28.10 (3-1-1-1-2-2-2-1-1-2-2-4-2)
13 - 2.21.09-3.14.09 (1-1-2-2-2-1-1-1-2-1-2-1-2)
8 - 4.19.11-Present (2-2-3-1-1-2-1-2)
8 - 3.27.10-4.9.10 (2-3-1-4-1-1-1-1)
8 - 5.31.09-2.23.10 (1-2-1-1-2-1-1-2)
8 - 4.25.09-5.8.09 (2-2-1-2-1-3-1-1)

Wright is batting .467 (14-for-30) with three doubles, three home runs, 12 RBI, and five stolen bases during the streak. He has 12 RBI over the last two BIG EAST series and 21 RBI in 18 conference games this year.

The 12 RBI tie for the most any Cardinal has ever amassed in back-to-back BIG EAST series. The last to turn the trick was current junior Stewart Ijames, who had three at Georgetown last year and then followed that up with nine against St. John's.

Most RBI in back-to-back BIG EAST series, Louisville players
1. 12 - Ryan Wright - 4.21.11-5.1.11 (5 vs. USF, 7 vs. Georgetown)
1. 12 - Stewart Ijames - 5.7.10-5.16.10 (3 at Georgetown, 9 vs. St. John's)
1. 12 - Andrew Clark - 4.30.10-5.9.10 (11 vs. Rutgers, 1 at Georgetown)
1. 12 - Isaiah Howes - 4.13.07-4.22.07 (2 at Connecticut, 10 at Seton Hall)
1. 12 - Jorge Castillo - 3.30.07-4.7.07 (10 vs. West Virginia, 2 vs. Pittsburgh)
1. 12 - Jorge Castillo - 3.31.06-4.9.06 (3 vs. Connecticut, 9 at Georgetown)

Sophomore Kyle Grieshaber walked and singled home a run in his first two plate appearances, giving him seven straight plate appearances reaching base safely in the series. Grieshaber entered the weekend 1-for-his-last-12 at the dish and had not walked or reached via hit-by-pitch since March 18, yet collected four hits, three walks, an HBP, six runs scored, and three RBI in the series. Grieshaber went 4-for-5 on the weekend and reached base in eight of his 10 plate appearances.

Grieshaber and Wright are the only two Cardinals over the past two seasons to reach base safely in seven consecutive plate appearances. Wright accomplished the feat during the BIG EAST Tournament last season, reaching in eight straight trips.

Consecutive plate appearances reaching base, last two seasons
1. 8 - Ryan Wright - 5.26.10-5.28.10 (HR-2B-BB-2B-1B-1B-2B-1B)
2. 7 - Kyle Grieshaber - 4.29.11-5.1.11 (BB-HBP-1B-1B-BB-BB-1B)

Grieshaber, batting first for the second consecutive game, has now reached base to open the game in four of his past six starts in the leadoff spot, including three of the past four. Grieshaber made 23 straight starts at leadoff from March 5-April 11 last season but had not hit first in the lineup since then until this weekend.

Grieshaber's three RBI on Sunday matched a career best.

Freshman Adam Engel ended 0-for-11 and 1-for-19 slides with a base hit in the second on Sunday. He then promptly stole second base, his second theft in as many days. Engel's seven steals this year tie for the most by a Louisville freshman since Wright notched 12 in 16 attempts in 2009.

Engel finished the game 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored, his second consecutive game scoring twice.

Sophomore Andy Flett secured his first career win in the game, retiring all seven batters he faced on two strikeouts and five fly outs. Flett has sent down nine batters in a row dating back to his April 23 outing against USF.

Five of Flett's last six outings have been of the scoreless variety. He has allowed just one hit in those five contests (.053 opponent average) and just six hits all season in 14.1 innings (.125).

Ijames homered for the second straight game, giving his team the lead with both swings--Sunday's turned a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 lead, while Saturday's broke a scoreless tie. Ijames is the only Cardinal to homer in consecutive games this season, also doing so in four straight from March 22-27.

Ijames is the fourth different Louisville hitter since 2001 to hit a grand slam and then homer again the very next game. The others were Andrew Clark last season, Chris Dominguez in 2009, and Ryan McKinnon in 2004 and again in 2005.

Hit grand slam and homered next game, Louisville players (since 2001)

Player          Grand Slam      Next game

Stewart Ijames 4.30.11 vs. Georgetown HR vs. Georgetown Andrew Clark 4.1.10 vs. Villanova HR vs. Villanova Chris Dominguez 3.4.09 vs. Bowling Green 3 HR vs. Milwaukee Ryan McKinnon 5.8.05 at Charlotte HR vs. Butler Ryan McKinnon 5.20.04 at USF HR at USF

The two-hit game for Ijames was his seventh in the past 12 games. Ijames went 6-for-13 with eight RBI in the series.

Senior Gabriel Shaw made his 99th career pitching appearance, leaving him just two games shy of tying Gavin Logsdon's (2006-09) school record of 101 mound outings.

Freshman Cody Ege now has eight straight scoreless outings from the hill, last surrendering a run on March 22 against Kent State. Ege has six strikeouts in 3.1 innings over that span.

Georgetown right fielder Rand Ravnaas set a new Jim Patterson Stadium opponent record with five hits in the contest. Ravnaas went 8-for-9 over the final two games of the weekend.

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

Jorge Castillo

Jorge Castillo

Andrew Clark

Chris Dominguez

Cody Ege

Cody Ege

Adam Engel

J.J. Ethel

Andy Flett

Chad Green

Kyle Grieshaber

Isaiah Howes

Stewart Ijames

Stewart Ijames

Gavin Logsdon

Gavin Logsdon

Gabriel Shaw

Jeff Thompson

Jeff Thompson

Ryan Wright

Ryan Wright

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