Louisville Welcomes Georgia Tech for Weekend Set
March 26, 2015 | Baseball
Freshman Brendan McKay is 3-0 with a 1.04 ERA on the mound and is hitting .309 at the plate.
GAME DAY INFO: #6 Louisville (18-7, 8-1 ACC) vs. #28 Georgia Tech (17-7, 5-4 ACC)
Date: March 27-29, 2015
Location: Louisville, Ky.
Venue: Jim Patterson Stadium (4,000)
Live Stats: Gametracker at GoCards.com
Twitter Updates: @UofLBaseball
Friday, March 27 | 4 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN3 (Watch) | Radio: 1450 WXVW
Web: CardsTV Audio (Listen) | Live Stats: Gametracker
LOU: Jr. RHP Kyle Funkhouser (2-2, 2.61 ERA)
ND: So. LHP Jonathan King (2-0, 3.28 ERA)
Saturday, March 28 | 1 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN3 (Watch) | Radio: TBD
Web: CardsTV Audio (Listen) | Live Stats: Gametracker
LOU: Fr. LHP Brendan McKay (3-0, 1.04 ERA)
ND: Jr. RHP Cole Pitts (0-2, 3.31 ERA)
Sunday, March 29 | 1 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN3 (Watch) | Radio: TBD
Web: CardsTV Audio (Listen) | Live Stats: Gametracker
LOU: So. LHP Josh Rogers (3-1, 4.41 ERA)
ND: So. RHP Brandon Gold (3-0, 1.83 ERA)
? Louisville Baseball Game Notes (vs. Georgia Tech) | Media Center
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The No. 6 Louisville baseball team returns home following a four-game road swing to host 28th-ranked Georgia Tech for a weekend series at Jim Patterson Stadium. The Cardinals and Yellow Jackets are slated to open the three-game set on Friday at 4 p.m., ET, while game two is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. Sunday's series finale is slated for 1 p.m., and admission is free throughout the weekend.
Television coverage of the Louisville-Georgia Tech series will be provided by ESPN3 at WatchESPN.com. Additionally, Friday's series-opener will be aired live on 1450 WXVW in Louisville, while radio coverage for the final two games of the weekend will be announced on Saturday morning. CardsTV subscribers can listen online at GoCards.com and live scoring will be available through Gametracker at GoCards.com.
ABOUT THE CARDINALS
Louisville, ranked as highly as sixth nationally by Perfect Game, earned its second straight ACC sweep and took sole possession of first in the Atlantic Division with three wins at Notre Dame last weekend. The Cardinals, who had their seven-game winning streak halted with Tuesday's loss at No. 19 Indiana, opened the series against the Irish with a 2-0 win on Friday. Saturday's 6-4 victory required 18 innings to finish, equaling the longest game in school history, and was clinched by Corey Ray's game-winning homer. Louisville closed the sweep with a 3-0 triumph Sunday.
SERIES HISTORY
Louisville holds a 2-1 edge all-time against Georgia Tech with all of the previous meetings coming at neutral sites. Most recently, the Cardinals lost 8-5 to the Yellow Jackets in the opening game of the 2008 NCAA Regional in Athens, Ga. Prior to that meeting, Louisville earned a pair of Metro Conference Tournament wins over Georgia Tech in 1976 (6-3) and 1977 (15-3) with both of those games being played in Memphis, Tenn.
ABOUT THE YELLOW JACKETS
Georgia Tech enters the weekend at 17-7 overall after a 4-1 win at home against Auburn on Tuesday night. The Yellow Jackets, ranked 28th this week by Collegiate Baseball newspaper, are one game out of first place in the ACC Coastal Division with a 5-4 record after dropping two of three at home last weekend to North Carolina. Last season, Tech was 37-27 overall and finished fifth in the Coastal at 14-16. The Yellow Jackets earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Championship and was 1-2 in the Oxford Regional.
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE RACE
After three weeks of ACC action, Louisville is atop the Atlantic Division with an 8-1 conference mark. The Cardinals hold a one-game lead over Florida State (7-2), while Wake Forest and Clemson are four games behind Louisville at 4-5. Miami leads the Coastal Division at 6-3 while Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Virginia Tech are a game behind at 5-4.
TEAM NOTES AND TRENDS
? At 8-1 in the ACC, it is the best start to conference play for the Cardinals under the guidance of head coach Dan McDonnell.
? Through the first 25 games of the season, the Louisville bullpen has an ERA of 1.78 with an 11-0 record, 117 strikeouts in 101.0 innings pitched and opposing batters are hitting just .166.
? Louisville has won 114 straight games when entering the ninth inning with a lead dating back to May 2012. The Cardinals were 43-0 last season and 46-0 in 2013 when leading after the eighth.
? The Cardinals are 15-1 this season when out-hitting their opponents, 0-5 when out-hit and 3-1 when hits are tied. Last season, Louisville was 38-3 when out-hitting its opponents.
? Louisville was 32-8 last season against righty starters and 18-9 against lefties. This season, they are 13-5 versus righties and 5-2 against lefties.
? The Cardinals allowed two or fewer earned runs in 40 of 67 games last season, something they did in 36 of 65 in 2013. So far in 2015, they have allowed two or fewer earned runs in 14 of 25 games overall.
? Louisville is 6-0 this season when scoring in the first inning and 10-0 when scoring first.
PLAYER NOTES AND TRENDS
? Senior Sutton Whiting leads the Cardinals with a .406 average through 25 games and is hitting .500 in ACC games.
? Freshman Devin Hairston has a team-high 20 RBI (in 19 starts), while sophomore Corey Ray and freshman Blake Tiberi each have three home runs for the Cardinals.
? Hairston also leads the team with nine two-out RBI and is hitting .636 with two outs and runners in scoring position.
? As the first player in Dan McDonnell's nine seasons to start on the mound and play virtually every day as a position player/hitter, freshman Brendan McKay is 3-0 with four saves, a 1.04 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 26.0 innings pitched (nine appearances, two starts.). At the plate, he is hitting .309 with 15 walks and nine RBI in 18 starts as a hitter.
? Sophomore lefty Drew Harrington has allowed only one earned run in 10 appearances on the mound this season. In 22.0 innings of work in 2015, Harrington is 2-1 with four saves, a 0.41 ERA, 32 strikeouts to just six walks while opposing hitters are batting just .092 against him.
? In his last four starts, sophomore lefthander Josh Rogers is 3-0 with a 1.07 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 25.1 innings pitched.
? Whiting leads the Cardinals with 11 multiple-hit games this season, while Ray has 10. Hairston has six multiple-RBI performances to lead the club, while Nick Solak is next with five.
LOUISVILLE IN NATIONAL POLLS EVERY WEEK SINCE BEGINNING OF 2012
The Louisville baseball program has enjoyed a historic run by remaining in at least one of the major national polls every week since the release of the 2012 preseason rankings -- the longest such span in school history. The Cardinals received their second highest preseason ranking ever prior to 2015 after being tabbed as highly as No. 7 in the USA Today preseason coaches poll. The ranking, which marked the third straight season the Cardinals were positioned in the top 10 in a preseason poll, was second to only the No. 4 ranking by Baseball America in 2013.
Earning a preseason national ranking for the eighth straight season, Louisville was ranked in the top 12 in each of the six preseason national polls in 2015. The Cardinals were also at No. 9 in the Perfect Game preseason Top 25, No. 11 in the D1Baseball Top 25 and No. 12 in both the Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball newspaper polls.
TEN CARDINALS MAKE COLLEGIATE DEBUTS IN 2015
A total of 10 Cardinals have made their collegiate debuts thus far in the 2015 season. During the Opening Weekend Challenge in Florida, Devin Hairston, Colby Fitch, Lincoln Henzman, Kade McClure, Brendan McKay and Blake Tiberi took the field for Louisville, while Butch Baird and Sean Leland saw their first chances for the Cardinals in the series against Arkansas State. On Feb. 24, Chandler Dale became the ninth player to see action with a relief appearance against Butler. Junior Jimmy Faul added his name to the list as the 10th player when he had a pinch hit single against Boston College on March 14.
LOUISVILLE PITCHERS LEAD NATION IN STRIKEOUTS SINCE 2012
Since 2012, Louisville's pitchers lead the nation in strikeouts with 1,920 overall (entering the week). The Cardinals, who had 253 strikeouts through the first 24 games of 2015, finished with 563 strikeouts last season, had an NCAA best 629 in 2013 and finished with 474 in 2012. Vanderbilt ranks second since 2012 with 1,860 strikeouts, while Mississippi State (1,851), NC State (1,835) and North Carolina (1,815) round out the top five.
STRONG WORK IN THE CLASSROOM CONTINUES FOR LOUISVILLE BASEBALL
The 2014 fall semester proved to be another good one for the Louisville baseball team in the classroom as the Cardinals earned a cumulative team GPA of 3.251 marking the seventh straight semester the team has finished above a 3.0 as a group. A total of 29 Louisville players finished the fall semester with a 3.0 GPA or higher.
FOLLOWING THE CARDINALS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter (@UofLBaseball) at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball.
