No. 20 Baseball Hosts UConn on "Louisville Legends Weekend"
April 26, 2012 | Baseball
April 26, 2012
GAME DAY INFORMATION: #20 Louisville vs. Connecticut
Dates: April 27-29, 2012
Location: Jim Patterson Stadium | Louisville, Ky.
Radio: News/Talk 1570 AM (WNDA) in Louisville
Internet: CardsTV (Audio & Video) at UofLsports.com
| Friday, 6 p.m. | CardsTV Audio/Video | |
| Saturday, 1 p.m. | CardsTV Audio/Video | |
| Sunday, 1 p.m. | CardsTV Audio/Video |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The 20th-ranked Louisville baseball team will continue its pursuit of a BIG EAST Conference regular season championship by hosting co-leader Connecticut for a three-game series on "Louisville Legends Weekend" at Jim Patterson Stadium.
Live play-by-play of the series can be heard on News/Talk 1570 AM (WNDA). Live video as well as live audio will be available to subscribers of CardsTV online at UofLsports.com. Live scoring will be available through the Gametracker feature on the baseball schedule page at UofLsports.com.
LOUISVILLE LEGENDS WEEKEND
The series marks a weekend-long event of celebration as Cardinal baseball will honor its more than 100 years of baseball history by recognizing great teams and alumni during "Louisville Legends Weekend." Special recognition will be held for both the 1957 and 2002 Cardinal teams. Celebrating their 55th anniversary, the Cardinal Nine of 1957 was the first team in school history to go undefeated at 15-0. Ten years ago, Louisville earned its first ever NCAA Regional bid, capping a record-breaking season in 2002. Pregame festivities and special offerings, including retro Cardinal gear, will be included throughout the weekend.
SERIES PROMOTIONS
In addition to Legends Weekend, each game includes special promotions for fans. On Friday night, fans can purchase draft beer and small Pepsi products for just $1 each throughout the ballpark for Budweiser Buck Night. For the middle game of the series on Saturday, the fourth set of limited edition Baseball Trading Cards will be released to the first 150 fans. The trading cards, which feature the 2012 Cardinals, will also include an exclusive Louisville Legend card. Finally on Sunday afternoon, Dr. Bizer's Vision World presents Family Fun Day as kids can run the bases and select players will sign autographs on the field after the game.
SERIES OVERVIEW
Entering this weekend's series, Louisville leads 10-7 in the all-time series with Connecticut, which started in 2006. Last season, the Huskies won two of three against the Cardinals during their regular season series in Connecticut. In Louisville, the Cardinals hold a 5-4 advantage against the Huskies, including winning two of three in UConn's last visit to Jim Patterson Stadium in 2010.
LOUISVILLE ONE GAME OUT OF FIRST IN BIG EAST STANDINGS WITH FOUR WEEKS LEFT
After earning a series win at BIG EAST leader USF last weekend in Tampa, Louisville is just one game out of first place in the conference standings with a 10-5 record. A trio of teams are ahead of the Cardinals in the BIG EAST race as USF, Connecticut and St. John's are tied at 11-4. The Cardinals will continue conference play this weekend by hosting UConn for a three-game set at Patterson Stadium, while St. John's will visit Louisville for a weekend series on May 11-13.
NOTES AND TRENDS TO FOLLOW...
The Cardinals are 29-0 this season when leading after the seventh inning... As a team, the Cardinals are 64-of-79 on stolen bases this season, while last season they were 67-for-94... With his team-leading 10th home run of the season on April 6, senior Stewart Ijames moved into a tie for eighth on the Cardinals' career home run list with Richie Hawks (1988-91) with 43 home runs... Ijames has 193 RBI in his career, which places him tied for seventh on U of L's all-time list with Darren Oppel (1990-93)... With his nine career saves, senior righty Derek Self is tied for 10th on the Cardinals' career list with B.J. Rosenberg (2004-08) and David Sonson (1995-97)... With 44 stolen bases in less than two full seasons, sophomore Adam Engel is sixth on the Cardinals' career list, four behind No. 5 Dave Williams, Jr. (2000-03)... With 21 career wins, junior righty Justin Amlung is tied for third on the Cards' career list with Mike Shields (1975-78)... And with 204 career strikeouts, Amlung ranks eighth all-time at Louisville... With 28 stolen bases this season, Engel is fourth on the Cardinals' single season list, just one behind No. 3 Mike Hook (2000)... With 18 HBPs this season, junior Nick Ratajczak is tied for fourth on U of L's single season list with Adam Duvall (2009) and Phil Wunderlich (2010) and just one behind No. 3 Daniel Burton (2007).
LOUISVILLE OFFENSE SHOWS IMPROVEMENT IN 2012
After struggling for much of 2011, the Louisville offense has shown considerable improvement through 41 games of 2012. Entering the week, the Cardinals are hitting .314 as a team, more than 60 percentage points higher than the .253 team average they had in 2011. In the 41 games this season, Louisville has finished with 10 or more hits 25 times, while last season, they achieved that total just 16 times in 61 games. In the scoring column, the Cardinals have scored seven or more runs 22 times (21-1 record), while in 2011, they did it just 15 times overall.
ABOUT CONNECTICUT
Connecticut enters the weekend at 23-18 overall after suffering a 7-1 non-conference setback to visiting Bryant University earlier this week. The Huskies are currently in a three-way tie for first place in the BIG EAST standings with an 11-4 league record after winning two of three against Rutgers last weekend.
UConn is led by coach Jim Penders, who is in his ninth season at the helm of the Huskies. Last season, Connecticut won the BIG EAST regular season title with a 22-5 league record. After earning an at-large invite to the NCAA Championship, UConn won the Clemson Regional before falling to eventual NCAA champion South Carolina in super regional action.
