Cardinal Baseball Fall Notebook - Sept. 30
September 30, 2013 | Baseball
Sept. 30, 2013
Video: Week 3 Fall Ball Scrimmage Highlights
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville baseball team reached the halfway mark in its full-squad fall workouts by hosting a pair of intra-squad scrimmages last weekend at Jim Patterson Stadium.
The Cardinals started the weekend on Friday afternoon with the Red team taking a 3-1 win in 10 innings. On Saturday morning, the Red and Black squads played to a 3-3 tie in 10 innings.
The pitching led the way during the week three scrimmages with numerous highlight reel catches in the outfield helping keep the scoring down. Offensively, sophomore infielder Danny Rosenbaum was the top performer of the weekend going 5-for-7 with two doubles, two RBI, two walks and a run scored.
The Cardinals are tentatively scheduled to host weekend scrimmages for three more weeks before concluding full-squad workouts in mid-October. Dates and times for those future scrimmages as well as the annual Pizza Bowl series will be announced throughout the fall.
Pitching Highlights
In Friday's opener, sophomore righthander Kyle Funkhouser continued his strong fall working four shutout innings with four strikeouts, while junior lefthander Kyle McGrath had two strikeouts in two scoreless innings of relief. Sophomore lefty Jakson Deyer added two shutout innings with two strikeouts for the Red team. For the Black squad, sophomore righty Jonah Philley had two strikeouts in two scoreless innings of relief, while freshman lefthander Robert Strader added two scoreless innings with a strikeout.
On Saturday, freshman righty Jake Sparger worked four shutout innings with two strikeouts following junior lefty Joe Filomeno, who pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout in his fall debut. Junior righty Nick Burdi added a scoreless inning of relief with one strikeout and junior lefty Cole Sturgeon chipped in with a strikeout in a shutout inning for the Black squad. Freshman righty Mason Richardson worked two perfect innings with three strikeouts for the Red team.
Offensive Highlights
Joining Rosenbaum with two solid days at the plate during the weekend was Sturgeon, who had three hits, three stolen bases and a run scored. In Friday's scrimmage, junior infielder Zach Lucas singled, was hit by a pitch, stole a base and scored once, while junior infielder and newcomer Grant Kay added a double and two stolen bases. On Saturday, senior infielder Alex Chittenden was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a walk, while senior catcher Shane Crain homered and had two RBI.
About Louisville Baseball
Directed by head coach Dan McDonnell, who is entering his eighth season at the helm, Louisville returns 19 letterwinners from last year's squad, which won a school record 51 games, the program's fourth regular season conference title in five seasons and hosted NCAA postseason games for the fourth time. The Cardinals capped the season by defeating No. 2 national seed Vanderbilt in the Nashville Super Regional to clinch the program's second College World Series berth and a No. 8 national ranking.
Among the top returnees for Louisville for the 2014 season are senior captains and All-Conference standouts Jeff Gardner and Cole Sturgeon, junior righty pitcher and All-American Nick Burdi, All-Conference shortstop Sutton Whiting, senior catching duo Shane Crain and Kyle Gibson and Freshman All-American pitchers Kyle Funkhouser and Anthony Kidston. A strong group of experienced upperclassmen including the likes of infielders Alex Chittenden, Zach Lucas and Danny Rosenbaum, outfielder Mike White and pitchers Jared Ruxer, Kyle McGrath and Joe Filomeno are joined by a deep and talented set of newcomers setting the stage for an entertaining fall and spring on the baseball diamond for the Cardinals.
In his seven seasons guiding the Louisville baseball program, McDonnell has placed the Cardinals among the nation's elite with two College World Series berths, three NCAA Super Regional appearances, six NCAA Regional bids, four conference regular season titles, two conference tournament titles and 309 wins overall.
Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball.
