Louisville Wins 18-Inning Marathon at Notre Dame

Saturday, March 21

South Bend, Ind.

2:05 PM

University of Louisville

17-6, 7-1

Notre Dame

15-6, 3-5

Louisville

Notre Dame

March 21, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

March 21, 2015

Corey Ray had four hits on Saturday, highlighted by the game-winning homer in the 18th inning.

Box Score

Box Score (PDF)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Corey Ray's home run to start the 18th inning helped lift the eighth-ranked Louisville baseball team to a 6-4 series-clinching win over No. 22 Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon at Frank Eck Stadium.

The 18-inning game equaled the longest in school history for the Cardinals (17-6, 7-1 ACC), who extended their winning streak to six and have won 12 of their last 14 overall. Saturday's game matched Louisville's 1-0 loss in 18 innings at Seton Hall on May 5, 2011 and was the fourth contest in the last seven seasons to go 17 innings or more for the Cardinals.

A sophomore outfielder from Chicago, Ray led off the 18th inning by sending a 3-1 offering from Notre Dame (15-6, 3-5 ACC) reliever Scott Tully over the right field wall for his third home run of the season and a 5-4 lead for the Cardinals. The home run capped a 4-for-8 day at the plate for Ray, who also added a walk during his nine plate appearances. Sophomore catcher Will Smith (Louisville, Ky.) chipped in with a two-out RBI single to score freshman Brendan McKay (Darlington, Pa.) later in the inning for the two-run cushion.

"Coach McDonnell challenged me before the final at-bat to not try to do too much and to instead to just put a good swing on it," explained Ray after the game. "As the game got deeper and deeper, our focus was on having good at-bats, stuffing on defense and for the pitchers to throw strikes. We knew we'd have a chance to break through for the win if we stayed mentally tough. Our pitchers did a great job today and we feel like our pitching staff can stand up against any in the country."

Freshman righty Sean Leland (Orland, Park, Ill.) made the lead stand with a perfect 18th inning to cap two innings of shutout relief to earn his first collegiate win. Leland added a pair of strikeouts while combining with six other Louisville pitchers for 21 total strikeouts on Saturday. The Cardinals' bullpen allowed just one run on four hits with nine strikeouts in 11 dominant innings of work in the victory.

"Coach (Roger) Williams and I are really proud of our pitching staff. We got another quality start from Brendan and an outstanding performance from our bullpen," said Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell. "Offensively, we swung it well but we just didn't have a lot to show for it. We showed a lot of toughness on the road against a very good team today."

Making his second collegiate start, McKay finished with a career-best 12 strikeouts while allowing three runs on three hits in seven innings for a no-decision. The runs were the first allowed in the short career for McKay, who had his scoreless streak halted at 22.2 consecutive innings with Notre Dame's two runs in the fourth.

After McKay, the bullpen took over as freshman Lincoln Henzman (Lexington, Ky.) worked a perfect inning of relief, sophomore lefty Robert Strader (Louisville, Ky.) recorded an out, sophomore righty Zack Burdi (Downers Grove, Ill.) had two strikeouts in 3.2 innings of dominant relief, sophomore righty Jake Sparger (Eau Claire, Wis.) allowed just one run in three innings and freshman lefty Butch Baird (Big Prairie, Ohio) added two strikeouts in a perfect inning before turning it over to Leland. For the season, the Louisville bullpen is 11-0 with a 1.88 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 96.0 innings.

At the plate, sophomore outfielder Nick Solak (Woodridge, Ill.) was 3-for-6 with a triple, two RBI and a run scored, while senior infielder Sutton Whiting (New Wilmington, Pa.) was 3-for-7 with a triple, two walks, one RBI and one run scored. Smith came off the bench to finish 2-for-4 with the late RBI, while freshman catcher Colby Fitch (Rocheport, Mo.) was 2-for-4 with a double and scored once in the starting role.

The Fighting Irish struck first on Saturday connecting for a pair of runs in the fourth inning against McKay. Outfielder Ricky Sanchez delivered a two-out, two-run double to right field to score catcher Ryan Lidge and shortstop Lane Richards for the early 2-0 lead.

Louisville answered in the fifth inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Whiting and Solak to pull even at 2-2. The inning started with Fitch being hit by a pitch and then moving to second on a single to left by freshman infielder Devin Hairston (Lexington, Ky.). After a sacrifice bunt by senior outfielder Mike White (East Orange, N.J.), Fitch scored on the single to right by Whiting. Hairston, who moved to second on the White bunt and took third on the Whiting hit, scored on Solak's single to right.

Notre Dame moved back ahead in the sixth inning when outfielder Robert Youngdahl drove a 1-0 offering from McKay over the right field wall for his second home run of the season and a 3-2 lead. However, the Cardinals were able to pull even again when Whiting led off the seventh with a triple to center and scored moments later on a RBI single to right field by Solak.

The score remained that way until the top of the 14th inning when Solak led off with a triple to right center and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by Irish reliever Peter Solomon. The lead was short-lived as Notre Dame answered in the bottom of the inning on a RBI single to left by Richards to score second baseman Cavan Biggio.

The Fighting Irish had a great chance to end the game in that 14th inning after the single by Richards, which put runners at the corners with just one out. However, Sparger kept the potential game-winning run at third base by forcing Sanchez into a grounder to the mound for the second out and getting Zak Kutsulis to ground out to shortstop for the final out of the frame.

Tully dropped to 2-1 on the season for the Irish after allowing two runs on three hits in his one inning of relief. Youngdahl and Richards had two hits each for Notre Dame, who was out-hit 19-7 by Louisville.

The Cardinals will look to complete a series sweep of the Fighting Irish on Sunday at 1:05 p.m., ET and 93.9 The Ville will have all of the play-by-play coverage.

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

Louisville Postgame Notes
? The Cardinals improved to 18-8 all-time against Notre Dame and 7-1 in South Bend.

? Saturday's game lasted 4 hours, 50 minutes, the longest for Louisville since playing 4:52 in the 18-inning loss at Seton Hall on May 5, 2011.

? Louisville is 2-2 in games covering 17 innings or more during the last seven seasons.

? The Louisville pitching staff finished with 21 strikeouts on Saturday, the most in a game under head coach Dan McDonnell.

? For the season, the Louisville bullpen is 11-0 with a 1.88 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 96.0 innings.

? The Cardinals had two triples in a game for the second time in two weeks after finishing with a pair against Boston College on March 14.

? The 19 hits for Louisville were the most since finishing with 22 against Western Michigan on Feb. 21, 2014.

? Louisville played error-free baseball for the sixth time this season with Saturday's performance.

? Zach Lucas has hit safely in 10 straight games.

? Sutton Whiting leads the Cardinals in hitting at .414 overall and on-base percentage at .536 - highlighted by 20 walks in 23 games.