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UCF Walks Off with Doubleheader Sweep of No. 7 Louisville
April 18, 2014 | Baseball
April 18, 2014
Senior Cole Sturgeon was matched a career-high with his four hits in the second game of Thursday's doubleheader.
ORLANDO, Fla. - An 11th inning walk-off wild pitch lifted UCF to a 4-3 victory over No. 7 Louisville completing a doubleheader sweep for the Knights and ending a difficult day and night of baseball for the Cardinals.
After falling 8-2 in the opening game of the day at the UCF Baseball Complex, Louisville (27-11, 7-4 American) suffered its first doubleheader sweep since 2006 and has now lost three straight overall for the first time since April 2013. The Cardinals have also dropped their first series of the season as UCF (25-15, 12-2 American) continued to maintain the top spot in the conference standings.
"It's very frustrating because we're not doing the little things. You have to play defense, you have to run the bases well and it was just a bad day of baseball," said Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell. "You have to run out there and compete and that's what makes this game great. It's very humbling. It doesn't matter what your record is or what you're ranked or how good you think you are. You have to do the little things."
With Louisville unable to organize any offensive threat in either the 10th or the 11th innings, the Knights opened the home half of the 11th with second baseman Dylan Moore reaching base on an error by the Cardinals after junior shortstop Sutton Whiting (New Wilmington, Pa.) dropped an infield popup in front of second base. After a wild pitch moved Moore to second base, outfielder Derrick Salberg reached base with a four-pitch walk from Louisville closer Nick Burdi (Downers Grove, Ill.). Moments later, both runners advanced on the second wild pitch of the inning before Moore scored the game-winner on the third wild pitch of the frame from Burdi for the 4-3 margin.
The 11th inning run was the first of the season allowed by Burdi, who dropped to 2-1 overall after finishing with a pair of strikeouts and issuing one walk without allowing a hit in 1.1 innings of relief. The run also ended Burdi's career best scoreless streak at 23.2 innings dating back to last June. For the Knights, Trent Thompson had two strikeouts while retiring all six batters he faced in extra innings to earn his first win of the season and improve to 1-4 overall.
At the plate, senior outfielder Cole Sturgeon (Owensboro, Ky.) led the Cardinals going 4-for-4 to match a career-high for hits and scored once. The team captain also contributed on the mound working 1.2 innings of shutout relief in one of his best all-around performances of the season.
Long before the disappointing end to the day, the Cardinals struck first in the nightcap plating a pair of runs in the top of the first inning against UCF starter Tanner Olson. Senior outfielder Jeff Gardner (Louisville, Ky.) started the scoring with RBI double down the right field line to score Sturgeon, who singled earlier in the inning. Junior second baseman Zach Lucas (Louisville, Ky.) followed with a RBI sacrifice fly to left field to score junior first baseman Grant Kay (Omaha, Neb.), who singled and took third on the Gardner double before reaching home.
However, the lead for Louisville was short-lived as the Knights answered in the bottom of the first inning with a two-run homer to left field by outfielder Erik Barber, his third home run of the season. Outfielder Derrick Salberg also scored on the homer after reaching base with a one-out infield single earlier in the inning off Louisville junior righty Jared Ruxer (Indianapolis, Ind.).
UCF took its first lead of the game in the fifth inning on RBI sacrifice fly to center field by Moore to score catcher Jordan Savinon for the 3-2 advantage. The inning started with a leadoff double to left field by Savinon, who took third on a sacrifice bunt by outfielder JoMarcos Woods before scoring.
The Cardinals pulled even in the top of the eighth inning scoring an unearned run after two errors by the Knights. With two outs in the frame, freshman outfielder Colin Lyman (Algonquin, Ill.) reached base and advanced to second on an error by first baseman James Vasquez after his throw to pitcher Zach Rodgers, who was covering first base on the groundball, was well off target. Moments later, Lyman scored easily after an error by shortstop Tommy Williams, whose throw to first on a groundball off the bat of senior catcher Shane Crain (Lexington, Ky.) sailed over Vasquez.
Ruxer finished with a no-decision after allowing three runs on six hits and eight strikeouts in seven innings pitched.
Potential inclement weather on Friday led to Thursday's schedule change with the doubleheader. The teams will attempt to complete the series on Friday at 6:30 p.m. If the finale is not played on Friday, the series will instead end on Saturday at 11 a.m.
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Louisville Postgame Notes
- Thursday marked the first time the Cardinals were swept in a doubleheader since Bowling Green won a pair of games on March 18, 2005 in Louisville.
- Louisville suffered its first series defeat since dropping two of three at St. John's on April 19-21, 2013.
- The current three-game losing skid is the longest such streak for the Cardinals since dropping three straight from April 20 to April 23 in 2013 (two games to St. John's and one to Vanderbilt).
- Finishing with a 7-6 edge in hits in the second game on Thursday, Louisville lost for just the second time in 23 games this season when out-hitting an opponent.
- The Cardinals dropped to 12-2 when scoring in the first inning and 17-3 when scoring first this season.
- Louisville had won each of its first three extra-inning games this season prior to Thursday's loss.
- The Cardinals dropped to 2-10 this season when scoring three runs or fewer.
- Thursday's second game marked the third time in Cole Sturgeon's career he has finished with four hits in a single game.
- In the two games on Thursday, Sturgeon was 5-for-8 with two runs scored for the Cardinals.
- Jared Ruxer delivered his seventh quality start of the season, including his fourth straight.
