University of Louisville
No. 1 VANDERBILT <br> (Patriotic Night)
Baseball Drops 5-1 Decision to No. 1 Vanderbilt
May 10, 2011 | Baseball
May 10, 2011
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McDonnell and Young Discuss Tuesday's Loss
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Freshman Jeff Gardner hit his first career home run but it was not enough as the Louisville baseball team lost 5-1 to top-ranked Vanderbilt in front of a crowd of 1,944 on "Patriotic Night" at Jim Patterson Stadium on Tuesday.
With their sixth straight loss, the Cardinals dropped to 25-24 overall, while the Commodores, ranked No. 1 in this week's National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top 30, improved to 41-6 on the season.
In his only plate appearance of the night, Gardner (Louisville, Ky./Whitefield Academy) hammered a 2-1 pitch from Vanderbilt reliever Mark Lamm over the right field wall for a pinch hit solo home run in the eighth inning to cut the Commodores' lead to 5-1. However, the Cardinals would get no closer as Lamm and VU closer Navery Moore recorded the final six outs of the game in order.
On a true staff day for U of L on the mound, 10 different Cardinals pitched on Tuesday night. After junior right-hander Travis Tingle (Louisville, Ky./Butler HS) pitched a scoreless first inning in his second start of the season, junior righty Mike Nastold (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS) followed out of the bullpen with a difficult second inning. Following rightfielder Mike Yastrzemski's leadoff single through the left side, catcher Curt Casali sent the first pitch he saw from Nastold over the left field wall for his third home run of the season and a 2-0 Commodores' lead.
The inning continued with an infield single by second baseman Riley Reynolds, who scored moments later as centerfielder Connor Harrell connected on a 1-2 pitch from Nastold for his fourth home run of the season and a 4-0 advantage. Nastold took the loss and dropped to 3-7 on the season after allowing four earned runs on five hits in his 1.0 inning of relief.
Vanderbilt's only other run of the night came in the fourth inning and was unearned as Reynolds reached on an error to start the inning and later scored as shortstop Anthony Gomez grounded into a double play. On the mound for the Commodores, freshman lefty Kevin Ziomek pitched 3.0 scoreless innings to earn the win and improve to 2-0 on the season.
Along with Tingle, the Cardinals also had scoreless outings on the mound from Jeff Thompson (Greenville, Ind./Floyd Central HS), Dace Kime (Defiance, Ohio/Defiance HS), Tony Zych (Monee, Ill./St. Rita HS), Cody Ege (Cherokee, Iowa/Washington HS), Andy Flett (Fenton, Mo./Lindbergh HS), Cole Sturgeon (Owensboro, Ky./Owensboro Catholic HS) and Matt Koch (Cherokee, Iowa/Washington HS), while Chad Green (Effingham, Ill./Effingham HS) allowed only the unearned run.
At the plate, freshman infielder Alex Chittenden (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence Central HS) was the only Cardinal with two hits. Harrell finished 2-for-4 with two RBI to lead Vanderbilt, while three other Commodores had two hits each in the win.
Up next, Louisville will return to the road for a three-game series at BIG EAST Conference leader Connecticut. The Cardinals and Huskies will open their series on Friday at 6 p.m., ET in Norwich, Conn., while Saturday's game is set for 1 p.m., in Storrs, Conn. Sunday's series finale is set for a noon first pitch in Storrs. Fans in Louisville and Southern Indiana can listen to all of the live play-by-play action for the Louisville-Connecticut series on KOOL 1570 AM.
