Cardinals Complete Sweep of SIUE with 10-1 Win

Sunday, February 21

LOUISVILLE, KY

1:00 PM

University of Louisville

3-0

SIU EDWARDSVILLE

0-3

SIU Edwardsville

Louisville

February 21, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score

Harrington strikes out nine in six shutout innings; Ray hits second home run in as many days

By: Garett Wall

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Junior lefthander Drew Harrington had nine strikeouts in six shutout innings on the mound and junior outfielder Corey Ray homered for the second straight day as the No. 2 Louisville baseball team completed a series sweep of SIU Edwardsville with Sunday afternoon's 10-1 win at Jim Patterson Stadium.

The Cardinals (3-0) scored at least 10 runs in each of the three games against the Cougars extending their longest such streak since the 1987 team opened with four straight games of 10 or more runs. The 43 runs against SIUE marked the highest scoring three-game series for Louisville in Dan McDonnell's 10 seasons as head coach.

The six innings were a career high for Harrington, while the nine strikeouts equaled his career best first achieved against USF on Feb. 14, 2015. The Elizabethtown, Ky., native did not issue a walk and allowed just three hits to earn his seventh collegiate victory in his sixth career start.

Ray completed an impressive opening weekend going 2-for-3 with a solo home run, two RBI, three stolen bases, four runs scored and one highlight reel catch at the wall in left during Sunday's finale. For the series, the native of Chicago hit .667 (6-for-9) with two home runs, seven RBI, nine runs scored and was 6-for-6 on stolen bases for Louisville, which swept all three games of an opening weekend for the first time since 2011.

Junior infielder Nick Solak chipped in going 1-for-2 with three RBI, one walk and scored twice, while senior first baseman Danny Rosenbaum singled and drove in two runs. Overall, Louisville outscored SIUE 43-5 in the three-game series and finished with a 39-16 edge in hits.

In addition to Harrington, the Cardinals were also aided on the mound by shutout relief appearances from sophomore righty Lincoln Henzman and junior righty Zack Burdi. Both Henzman and Burdi had two strikeouts and needed just 13 pitches each to record 1-2-3 frames.

The Cardinals delivered a two-run first inning for the third consecutive game against the Cougars as Solak drove in Ray with a RBI sacrifice fly to center and sophomore Brendan McKay added a RBI groundout to plate junior outfielder Logan Taylor. Louisville extended the lead to 5-0 in the third inning behind Ray's solo home run, which cleared the trees beyond the right field wall, as well as an RBI sac fly from Rosenbaum and a RBI triple by sophomore third baseman Blake Tiberi.

The advantage increased to 7-0 in the fifth inning after sophomore shortstop Devin Hairston scored on a RBI fielder's choice off the bat of Ray, who stole third later in the inning before scoring on a throwing error by SIUE catcher Kailer Smith. The Cardinals closed their scoring in the sixth inning behind a two-run single from Solak and a RBI single by Rosenbaum.

Up next, Louisville concludes its season-opening four-game homestand with a visit from Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday at 3 p.m., ET at Jim Patterson Stadium and admission is free. Radio coverage of the game will be available on 1450 WXVW.

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