No. 18 Baseball Travels to WVU for Weekend Series
May 04, 2012 | Baseball
May 4, 2012
GAME DAY INFORMATION: #18 Louisville at West Virginia
Dates: May 5-6, 2012
Location: Hawley Field | Morgantown, W.Va.
Internet: CardsTV (Audio) at UofLsports.com
| Saturday, 2 p.m. ET | CardsTV Audio | |
| Saturday, 5:30 p.m. ET | CardsTV Audio | |
| Sunday, 1 p.m. ET | CardsTV Audio |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The 18th-ranked Louisville baseball team continues a five-game road swing with a three-game weekend series at West Virginia.
The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday before concluding the weekend on Sunday afternoon. Live audio of the series 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.
SERIES OVERVIEW
Entering the weekend, Louisville leads 12-5 in the all-time series with West Virginia, which started in 2000. The Cardinals have won six of the last seven, including two of three last season in Louisville. In Morgantown, U of L holds a slim 5-4 lead over WVU. During their last visit to Hawley Field on April 17-18, 2010, Louisville swept a three-game set against West Virginia by winning both games of a doubleheader (8-1, 12-9) on Saturday and the finale on Sunday (10-1).
LOUISVILLE TWO GAMES OUT OF FIRST IN BIG EAST RACE WITH THREE WEEKS LEFT
After earning a series win against Connecticut last weekend in Louisville, the Cardinals are two games out of first and tied for second in the BIG EAST Conference race. With a 12-6 record, U of L is tied with USF and UConn and owns the tiebreaker with both after earning series wins over them in the last two weeks. St. John's, which will visit Louisville for a weekend series on May 11-13, is atop the BIG EAST standings with a 14-6 record with just three weeks (nine games) left in the regular-season race.
AMLUNG NAMED BIG EAST PITCHER OF THE WEEK ON APRIL 30
Junior right-hander Justin Amlung was named BIG EAST Conference Pitcher of the Week on April 30 after his dominant outing in Louisville's series-opening win over Connecticut on April 27. Amlung pitched 7.0 shutout innings allowing only four hits with six strikeouts to earn his seventh win of the season in Louisville's 5-0 victory against the Huskies at Jim Patterson Stadium. Overall, he is 7-3 on the season with a 2.27 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 75.1 innings. Amlung is the fourth Cardinal to earn BIG EAST Player/Pitcher of the Week honors this season joining freshman pitcher Jared Ruxer (April 16), sophomore infielder Ty Young (March 19) and senior outfielder/first baseman Stewart Ijames (Feb. 27).
ABOUT WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia enters the weekend at 17-27 overall and 5-13 in BIG EAST action after being swept in a three-game series at Seton Hall last weekend.The Mountaineers are led by coach Greg Van Zant, who is in his 18th season at the helm in Morgantown. Last season, WVU finished 28-27 overall and was tied for fourth in the BIG EAST with a 14-13 record.
NOTES AND TRENDS TO FOLLOW...
The Cardinals are 31-1 this season when leading after the seventh inning... Louisville is 25-6 when scoring first and 17-6 when scoring in the first inning... As a team, the Cardinals are 72-of-89 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 195 RBI in his career, which places him in seventh on U of L's all-time list just one behind sixth-place Tim Harper (1995-98)... 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)... Self has 89 career appearances on the mound, which ranks fifth on the Cards' all-time list... 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 22 career wins, junior righty Justin Amlung is tied for second on Louisville's career win list with Brian Bentley (1997-2000) ... And with 210 career strikeouts, Amlung ranks eighth all-time at Louisville, just two behind Rosenberg in seventh and eight behind No. 6 Rod Biehl (1990-91)... With 28 stolen bases this season, Engel is fourth on the Cardinals' single season list, just one behind No. 3 Mike Hook (2000)... With 21 HBPs this season, junior Nick Ratajczak is in third on U of L's single season list behind only Logan Johnson, who sits first (32 in 2007) and second (25 in 2006) on the list.
