No. 4 Baseball Hosts EKU Wednesday in Home-Opener
February 19, 2013 | Baseball
Feb. 19, 2013
GAMEDAY INFORMATION: #4 Louisville vs. Eastern Kentucky
Date: Feb. 20, 2013
Location: Louisville, Ky. | Jim Patterson Stadium (4,000)
TV: None
Radio: News/Talk 1570 AM
Internet: CardsTV (Audio/Video) at GoCards.com
| Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET | CardsTV Audio / Video | Gametracker |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The No. 4 Louisville baseball team kicks off its 36-game home slate in 2013 with a midweek matchup against in-state foe Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday at 3 p.m., ET at Jim Patterson Stadium.
Live play-by-play of the game can be heard on News/Talk 1570 AM, while live video and audio will be available to subscribers of CardsTV at GoCards.com. Live scoring will be available through the Gametracker feature on the baseball schedule page at GoCards.com. Admission is free for the game.
PITCHING MATCHUP
Louisville: Jr. RHP Dace Kime - (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Eastern Kentucky: Fr. RHP Chris Cervantes - (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
SERIES OVERVIEW
Wednesday's meeting will be the 109th all-time between Louisville and Eastern Kentucky on the baseball diamond with UofL owning a 59-48-1 advantage in the all-time series, which dates back to 1927. The Cardinals have won 10 of the last 11 in the series, including a 7-2 win last season at Patterson Stadium. Louisville has won 12 straight at home in the series dating back to 1998. Wednesday's game will be the first of two meetings this season between the Cardinals and Colonels.
ABOUT EASTERN KENTUCKY
EKU is 1-2 overall after taking one game of a weekend series at Charleston Southern last weekend in Charleston, S.C. After a 17-4 season-opening loss to the Buccaneers, Eastern Kentucky earned a 5-1 win in game two of the series before dropping the finale 6-5 in seven innings. The Colonels are led by fifth-year head coach Jason Stein, who is 111-109 during his tenure in Richmond. Last season, EKU was 31-23 overall and was 19-7 in winning a share of the Ohio Valley Conference regular season title. The Colonels ended their season with an 0-2 finish at the OVC Championship.
LAST OUTING FOR THE CARDINALS
Scoring five runs in the final two innings of the game, fourth-ranked Louisville closed out the 2013 BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge with a 9-4 win over Purdue on Sunday at Al Lang Stadium.
Shortstop Sutton Whiting led the Louisville offense on Sunday going 3-for-5 with two RBI, two runs scored and two stolen bases. Outfielder Adam Engel added two hits, two RBI and a stolen base, while freshman Danny Rosenbaum had two hits, a walk and scored twice. On the mound, freshman righty Anthony Kidston pitched three shutout innings of relief with five strikeouts and no hits to earn the win in his debut.
CARDINALS BEGIN SECOND LARGEST HOME SLATE WITH EIGHT-GAME HOMESTAND
Slated to play the second most home games in school history at expanded Jim Patterson Stadium, the Louisville baseball team will open its 36-game home schedule on Wednesday. The 2013 schedule is second in Cardinals' baseball history trailing only the 43 home games played during the 1980 season.
Wednesday's game also begins an eight-game homestand for the Cardinals and a stretch of 24 of 26 games for Louisville at Jim Patterson Stadium, which has an updated seating capacity of 4,000. The eight-game homestand is the second longest on the schedule behind the 12-game stretch from March 8-24.
THOMPSON NAMED BIG EAST PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Louisville junior right-handed pitcher Jeff Thompson was named BIG EAST Baseball Pitcher of the Week on Feb. 18 following his dominant performance in the fourth-ranked Cardinals' win over USF on Feb. 16.
Thompson struck out a career best 12 batters while allowing just four hits in five innings en route to a 10-1 win for Louisville over USF. The 2012 All-BIG EAST selection also set a BIG EAST/Big Ten Challenge record for single-game strikeouts.
NOTES AND TRENDS TO FOLLOW
Louisville has won its home-opener in five of the last six seasons with the lone exception coming in 2011... The Cardinals were 40-2 last season when leading after seven innings and are 1-0 in that situation this season... Louisville was 32-10 in 2012 when scoring first and are 2-0 this season when scoring first... The Cards had an 87-14 scoring advantage in the first inning last season, while this season, they have a 4-0 edge in the first... Louisville was 26-15 in day games in 2012 and are already 2-0 this season... Nick Ratajczak has hit safely in all three games this season and has an eight-game hitting streak going back to last season.
FOLLOWING THE CARDINALS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball.
