Louisville Drops Midweek Finale to Ole Miss

Wednesday, March 11

JIM PATTERSON STADIUM

3:00 PM

University of Louisville

11-6

OLE MISS

9-7

Ole Miss

Louisville

March 11, 2015 | Baseball

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March 11, 2015

Freshman Devin Hairston receives a throw a second base during Wednesday afternoon's game.

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By Taylor Sherrill
GoCards.com

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The No. 8 Louisville baseball team fell to visiting Ole Miss 8-3 on Wednesday afternoon splitting the midweek series at Jim Patterson Stadium between 2014 College World Series qualifiers.

The Rebels (9-7) struck first with three runs in the third inning and never trailed as they kept the Cardinals' (11-6) offense off balance. Starter Sam Smith pitched four solid innings to improve to 1-2 on the season while Will Stokes tossed the final five innings for his second save for Ole Miss, which benefited from a pair of Louisville errors with five unearned runs.

Sophomore lefty Drew Harrington (Elizabethtown, Ky.), who by has pitched primarily out of the bullpen, tossed three innings in his first start of the season. He gave up only three unearned runs on just one hit while striking out three to fall to 2-1 on the season.

After two quick outs to start the third inning, the Rebels mounted a two-out rally as they loaded the bases with a double by Kyle Watson, a hit batsman and a walk. Third baseman Colby Bortles cleared the bases on a dropped fly ball in the outfield before Harrington rebounded with a groundout to prevent further damage.

Louisville quickly responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to cut the deficit to 3-2 but was unable to get any closer. Freshman infielder Devin Hairston (Lexington, Ky.) started the rally by beating out an infield single before senior outfielder Mike White (East Orange, N.J.) hit an opposite field single setting up the Cardinals' top of the order. Senior infielder Sutton Whiting (New Wilmington, Pa.) followed with a bunt single to load the bases with no outs. One out later, sophomore Corey Ray (Chicago, Ill.) brought in the first run for the Cardinals with a RBI sacrifice fly to score Hairston. White scored the second run of the inning when Zach Lucas (Louisville, Ky.) reached on a throwing error by Ole Miss shortstop Errol Robinson.

Ole Miss tacked on two more unearned runs in the fifth against senior righty Brandon Alphin (Mt. Washington, Ky.) to take a 5-2 lead. After two walks and an error, the Rebels added a run when Watson scored on a double play ball by Bortles. First baseman Sikes Orvis pushed the lead to three with a RBI single to right field to score Will Golsan.

The Rebels added three more runs in the eighth inning to put the game well out of reach. After three consecutive hits to start the inning, Watson brought in a run on a fielder's choice. After a sacrifice fly from Golsan extended the margin to five runs, outfielder J. B. Woodman rounded out the scoring by plating Watson with a ground-rule double to give the Rebels an 8-2 lead.

Freshman first baseman Brendan McKay (Darlington, Pa.) cut the Rebels' lead to 8-3 with a RBI double in the ninth to score Lucas, but the Cardinalss were unable to get any closer as Stokes retired the final two batters to end the game.

A few bright spots for the Cardinals were seen in junior right-hander Jonah Philley (Louisville, Ky.) and freshman right-hander Kade McClure (Mentor, Ohio) as they combined to throw 3.2 innings of shutout relief.

Up next, No. 8 Louisville will return to ACC action with a weekend series at home against Boston College. The Cardinals and Eagles are scheduled to open on Friday at 3 p.m., ET at Jim Patterson Stadium and will continue on Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.).

Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter (@UofLBaseball) at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball.