Baseball Welcomes Notre Dame for Important Weekend Series
May 18, 2011 | Baseball
May 18, 2011
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With a berth in next week's BIG EAST Championship on the line, Louisville (27-26, 12-12 BIG EAST) will host Notre Dame (21-25-1, 12-11 BIG EAST) in an important three-game series this weekend at Jim Patterson Stadium.
The series will open on Thursday at 6 p.m., and will continue on Friday at 7 p.m., and Saturday at 1 p.m. Admission is free for all three games.
Live play-by-play of the series can be heard on KOOL 1570 AM, while CardsTV, available to subscribers at www.UofLSports.com, will provide live audio of each game. Wazoo Sports, available in Kentucky, will provide live television coverage of Thursday's game, while CBS College Sports will televise the final two games of the series live. Fans can also follow live pitch-by-pitch scoring online through the Gametracker feature at www.UofLSports.com.
Weekend Pitching Matchups
Thursday, May 19 | 6:00 p.m. ET (1570 AM/Wazoo TV)
Louisville Jr. RHP Derek Self (2-2, 1.99 ERA) vs. Notre Dame Sr. RHP Brian Dupra (3-5, 2.37 ERA)
Friday, May 20 | 7:00 p.m. ET (1570 AM/CBS College Sports)
Louisville So. RHP Justin Amlung (8-2, 2.06 ERA) vs. Notre Dame Sr. RHP Cole Johnson (4-6, 2.69 ERA)
Saturday, May 21 | 1:00 p.m. ET (1570 AM/CBS College Sports)
Louisville Jr. RHP Travis Tingle (2-0, 2.48 ERA) vs. Notre Dame Sr. RHP Todd Miller (4-3, 3.96 ERA)
Series Overview
Louisville and Notre Dame have met 18 previous times with the Cardinals owning an 11-7 advantage. Last season, U of L earned a three-game sweep of the Fighting Irish in South Bend to clinch its second straight BIG EAST title. In their most recent series in Louisville, Notre Dame won two of three games on April 24-26, 2009. Later that season, the teams met three times in Clearwater, Fla., at the BIG EAST Championship with the Cardinals winning twice. Overall, the teams are tied at 4-4 in games played in Louisville, though the Cardinals do hold at 4-2 edge at Jim Patterson Stadium.
Last Time Out for the Cardinals
Adam Engel had a career-best four hits as Louisville picked up an 8-4 non-conference win at Indiana on Tuesday afternoon at Sembower Field. Engel 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. On the mound, Matt Koch 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.
Cardinals Seventh in BIG EAST with One Week Left
After losing two of three at No. 15 Connecticut last weekend, Louisville dropped to seventh in the league standings with just one week to go in the season. At 12-12, the Cardinals are just one game behind Cincinnati and West Virginia in fourth place and a 1/2 game behind sixth-place Notre Dame. However, Louisville is only one game in front of Seton Hall and USF, which are tied for the eighth and final spot in the upcoming BIG EAST Championship in Clearwater, Fla.
Pitchers Lead the Way for Louisville
Through 53 games, the Louisville pitching staff has led the way with six shutout wins and an ERA of 3.02. The Cardinals have 352 strikeouts and only 165 walks in 476.1 innings. The opening weekend included a stretch of 23.2 consecutive shutout innings and 25.2 straight innings without an earned run and included the Cardinals' first back-to-back shutouts since 2007. U of L followed that early stretch with a streak of 22.0 straight scoreless innings and 24 straight innings without an earned run to end the series at Pepperdine. Overall, the Louisville pitching staff has allowed two earned runs or fewer in 27 games this season.
About Cardinals' Head Coach Dan McDonnell
In his fifth season as the Cardinals' head coach, Dan McDonnell is 212-103 for a .673 winning percentage. In his first four seasons, he led Louisville to impressive heights, including its first ever College World Series appearance in 2007, four consecutive 40-win seasons, a school record 50 wins in 2010 and a school record four straight NCAA Championship appearances. Louisville has also hosted NCAA post-season games in three of the last four seasons.
About Notre Dame
Notre Dame enters the series at 21-25-1 overall and 12-11 in BIG EAST action. Most recently, ND dropped a mid-week home game to Big Ten leader Michigan State after earning a three-game sweep of USF last weekend. The Fighting Irish are led by Mik Aoki, who is in his first season as head coach in South Bend after serving the previous four years as the head coach at Boston College. Last year, Notre Dame was 22-32 overall, including a 10-17 league record to finish ninth in the BIG EAST standings.
