University of Louisville
Indiana
Baseball Handles Indiana, 8-4
May 17, 2011 | Baseball
May 17, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Freshman outfielder Adam Engel had a career-best four hits as the Louisville baseball team picked up an 8-4 non-conference win at Indiana on Tuesday afternoon at Sembower Field.
With the win, the Cardinals improved to 27-26 overall, while the Hoosiers dropped to 30-22 on the season with the loss. Louisville evened the season series with IU after the Hoosiers earned a 5-3 victory over the Cardinals at Jim Patterson Stadium last month.
Engel (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland HS) finished 4-for-5 with three singles, a double and a run scored as the Cardinals opened an 8-0 lead through the first four innings and coasted home to the victory. In 11 games in the month of May, Engel is hitting .409 (18-for-44) with six stolen bases. Senior outfielder Drew Haynes (New Albany, Ind./New Albany HS) added two hits with one RBI and one run scored, while freshman infielder Ryan Seiz (Perkasie, Pa./Christopher Dock HS) had a double, two RBI and two runs in the win.
On the mound, sophomore right-hander Matt Koch (Cherokee, Iowa/Washington HS) earned the win and improved to 5-5 on the season after working 2.0 shutout innings with two strikeouts in the start on a staff day for Louisville. Senior righty Gabriel Shaw (Paducah, Ky./St. Mary's HS) followed Koch with a scoreless inning of relief in his 102nd career appearance on the mound to set a new school record for the Cardinals. Shaw surpassed the previous school record for pitching appearances of 101 set by Gavin Logsdon from 2006-09.
Louisville opened the scoring in the first inning of Tuesday's game as Engel led off the game with a single up the middle off IU starter Tyler Thicke, moved to second on single to left by freshman Jeff Gardner (Louisville, Ky./Whitefield Academy), advanced to third on a walk to junior infielder Ryan Wright (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead HS) and scored on an RBI sacrifice fly to left by senior catcher J.J. Ethel (Phoenix, Ariz./Mountain Pointe HS) for the 1-0 advantage.
After a scoreless second inning, the Cardinals gained complete control of the game in the third with five runs on three hits, three walks and one IU error. The inning started with walks to Wright, Ethel and sophomore infielder Cade Stallings (Knoxville, Tenn./Farragut HS) and Seiz followed with a two-run double down the left field line for a 3-0 lead. Two batters later, Seiz scored on an RBI single up the middle by Haynes for the third run of the frame. One batter later, freshman infielder Alex Chittenden (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence Central HS) scored from second on a throwing error by shortstop Michael Basil on an infield hit by Engel. Moments later Haynes scored from third on a wild pitch by Indiana's Drew Leininger for the 6-0 lead.
An inning later, U of L added two more runs on a hit, an error and two more Indiana walks. Ethel started things off with a one-out walk, moved to second on a walk to Stallings, advanced to third as Seiz grounded into a fielder's choice and scored on an RBI single to right by Chittenden. After moving from first to third on the single by Chittenden, Seiz scored from third on a throwing error by second baseman Micah Johnson trying to prevent Seiz from reaching third.
The Hoosiers plated two runs in the eighth inning as Brian Ritz scored on an RBI single by Brian Lambert and T.C. Knipp scored from third on a passed ball. Indiana added its final two runs in the ninth inning on solo home runs by Ty Downing and Ritz. Thicke took the loss for the Hoosiers and dropped to 0-1 on the season after allowing three runs, all earned, on three hits with four walks in 2.1 innings.
Up next, Louisville will close the regular season with an important three-game series at home against Notre Dame, which will open on Thursday at 6 p.m., at Jim Patterson Stadium. Game two is set for Friday at 7 p.m., while the series finale is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. Admission is free for the entire series.
Louisville Notes
- With Tuesday's victory, Louisville extended its winning streak over Indiana at Sembower Field to five. The Cardinals are 10-7 all-time against the Hoosiers in Bloomington.
- Overall, Louisville trails 19-18 the all-time series against Indiana.
- In Dan McDonnell's five seasons as head coach at Louisville, the Cardinals are 24-4 overall against Big Ten foes.
- The Cardinals used nine different pitchers in Tuesday's win, their second highest total of the season. On May 10, Louisville used a season-high 10 different pitchers on another staff day for the pitchers.
- Louisville improved to 20-7 this season when scoring first and moved to 11-2 when going error-free.
- The win for sophomore Matt Koch on Tuesday was his first since April 8 at Cincinnati.
