No. 1 Cardinals Set School Record, Move to 18-0 Overall

Saturday, March 18

LOUISVILLE, KY

1:00 PM

University of Louisville

18-0, 5-0

BOSTON COLLEGE

6-10, 1-4

Boston College

Louisville

The unbeaten Cardinals celebrate Saturday's victory at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Photo by: Mike DeZarn

No. 1 Cardinals Set School Record, Move to 18-0 Overall

March 18, 2017 | Baseball

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McClure strikes out nine in eight dominant innings as Louisville clinches series with Boston College

By: Garett Wall

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The No. 1 Louisville baseball team set a school record on Saturday afternoon at Jim Patterson Stadium as the unbeaten Cardinals registered their 18th straight win to open the season with a 6-4 victory against Boston College.

The 2017 Cardinals surpassed the mark set by the 1957 team, which had a perfect 17-0 record under the guidance of head coach Dr. John Heldman, Jr. The 18-game winning streak for Louisville is the second longest in school history trailing only the 22 consecutive wins achieved across three seasons – the final game of 1956, all 17 games in 1957 and the first four games of 1958.

"A winning streak of this length, at any point in a season, is testament to the approach and execution of the players and the commitment of the assistant coaches," said Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell. "We put a lot of emphasis in our program on winning the day, whether that's against an opponent on game day, on the practice field or in the classroom, and that philosophy has helped us win a lot of games. I'm pleased with the way we've started this season, but we also know there is a lot of work and growth ahead of us if we're going to achieve everything we're capable of achieving."

Louisville, which moved to 5-0 in the ACC with Saturday's victory, also clinched its 34th consecutive regular season home win and its 30th straight regular season weekend series win at home. The Cardinals have not suffered a regular season series loss at home since 2013.

Junior righthanded pitcher Kade McClure headlined Saturday's game on the field registering nine strikeouts and surrendering just one run on four hits and one walk in a career-best eight innings. The Mentor, Ohio, native carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning while improving to 3-0 on the season and 16-1 in his collegiate career. McClure, who lowered his season ERA to 1.82 with Saturday's outing, has allowed only two earned runs on 13 hits with 31 strikeouts in his last 26.0 innings of work.

After Boston College (6-10, 1-4 ACC) rallied for a trio of runs to begin the ninth inning, junior righty Lincoln Henzman entered from the Cardinals bullpen registering a pair strikeouts and recording the final three outs of the game for his fourth save of the season. In his six relief appearances in 2017, Henzman has 14 strikeouts while allowing just two hits in 10.0 scoreless innings.

Sophomore Devin Mann paced the offense for the Cardinals finishing 2-of-4 with two RBI, while junior Drew Ellis added two hits and drove in a run. Sophomore Josh Stowers chipped in with a single, two walks, two stolen bases and scored twice and senior Logan Taylor singled, walked, had one RBI and scored once.

The Cardinals opened the scoring with a run in the first inning on a two-out RBI single to left field by Ellis to score Taylor. Louisville pushed the lead to 4-0 in the third inning with three runs on one hit and three walks. Junior Devin Hairston scored the first run of the inning on a RBI groundout by senior Colin Lyman before Mann delivered a two-out, two-run single up the middle to plate junior Brendan McKay and Stowers.

Louisville increased the margin to 6-0 in the seventh inning when Lyman scored from third on a RBI fielder's choice by freshman Tyler Fitzgerald and Taylor drove Stowers home with a RBI sacrifice fly to right field. The Eagles plated their first run of the weekend in the eighth inning on a RBI groundout by Anthony Maselli. Boston College added three runs in the ninth on a two-run single by Gian Martellini and a RBI single from Johnny Adams before Henzman closed the door on the comeback attempt.

Louisville and Boston College will conclude the weekend set on Sunday at 1 p.m., ET and admission is free.

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