Monday Practice Officially Opens Fall Ball at Louisville
September 08, 2014 | Baseball
Batting practice during Monday's fall ball practice at Patterson Stadium for the Cardinals.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fall baseball is officially underway at the University of Louisville after the Cardinals conducted a high energy practice session inside Jim Patterson Stadium on Monday afternoon.
On a sunny and breezy afternoon in Louisville, the Cardinals kicked off six weeks of full-squad practice in preparation for the 2015 season. The opening week of fall workouts will conclude with a pair of intra-squad scrimmages on Friday at 3 p.m., ET and Saturday at 11 a.m., at Patterson Stadium.
With excitement building around the program as the Cardinals prepare for their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Cardinals are tentatively scheduled to host weekend scrimmages every week until the conclusion of fall workouts in mid-October. Dates and times for future scrimmages as well as the annual Pizza Bowl series will be announced throughout the fall.
Louisville returns 19 letterwinners from its 2014 squad, which finished 50-17 overall, won the program's fifth regular season conference championship in six seasons and hosted NCAA postseason games for the second straight year. The Cardinals defeated Kennesaw State in the Louisville Super Regional to clinch their third CWS berth in eight seasons under the guidance of head coach Dan McDonnell. Louisville, which has hosted six different rounds of NCAA postseason baseball in the last eight years, ended the season ranked as highly as sixth in the national polls.
Leading the list of returnees for Louisville in the 2015 season is junior righthanded pitcher Kyle Funkhouser, a Second Team All-American in 2014 who set a school record for wins finishing 13-3 overall with a 1.94 ERA and 122 strikeouts in 120.1 innings. The Cardinals also return senior infielder and 2014 All-Conference honoree Zach Lucas, talented starting pitchers Anthony Kidston (junior righty) and Josh Rogers (sophomore lefty).
In his eight seasons guiding the Louisville baseball program, McDonnell has placed the Cardinals among the nation's elite with the three College World Series berths, four NCAA Super Regional appearances, seven NCAA Regional bids, five conference regular season titles, two conference tournament titles, 14 All-Americans and 359 wins overall (seventh most nationally during that eight-year span).
Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter (@UofLBaseball) at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball.
