No. 2 Cardinals Win 10-1, Clinch Series at Georgia Tech

Friday, April 14

Atlanta, GA

6:00 PM

University of Louisville

30-4, 0

Georgia Tech

16-17, 0

Louisville

Georgia Tech

No. 2 Cardinals Win 10-1, Clinch Series at Georgia Tech

April 14, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Louisville reaches 30-win plateau faster than any team in school history

By: Garett Wall

ATLANTA - Colby Fitch had three hits, including a home run, and Kade McClure twirled six strong innings as the No. 2 Louisville baseball team clinched its eighth series victory of the season with Friday night's 10-1 win over Georgia Tech at Russ Chandler Stadium.

Fitch finished 3-for-5 overall with his team-leading seventh homer of the season and scored three times for the Cardinals (30-4, 14-3 ACC), who became the nation's first team to reach 30 wins. The 2017 Cardinals also reached 30 wins faster than any squad in school history (34 games) breaking the previous mark of 36 games by the 2010 team.

McClure registered the win to move to 4-1 on the season and 17-2 in his career after allowing just one run on four hits with seven strikeouts in six quality innings. Freshman lefthander Adam Elliott added two scoreless innings of relief and righthander Riley Thompson had two strikeouts in a perfect ninth inning for Louisville, which followed Thursday's one-hit shutout in the series-opener by limiting the Yellow Jackets (16-17, 4-13 ACC) to just six hits in game two.

Devin Hairston delivered his fourth straight multi-hit game going 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, while Brendan McKay had his third straight two-hit outing finishing 2-for-5 with a pair of runs. Devin Mann added two hits and two RBI, Logan Taylor singled and walked twice, Colin Lyman chipped in with a two-run double and Drew Ellis added a two-run single. The Cardinals finished with 13 hits overall marking the third straight game they have finished with 10 or more hits.

The Yellow Jackets struck first Friday when Ryan Peurifoy connected for a RBI single through the left side to score Kel Johnson for the 1-0 lead in the second inning. The Cardinals answered with a four-run fourth inning, which kicked off a stretch of four straight scoring innings for Louisville.

Fitch started the fourth with a single up the middle and moved to second on a single by Hairston before two errors by Jackets second baseman Wade Bailey allowed Fitch to score. Lyman added a two-run double to left center to score Hairston and McKay. Later in the inning, a bases loaded walk to Taylor sent Lyman home for the 4-1 lead.

Louisville added to the advantage with a three-run fifth inning to chase Yellow Jackets starter Xzavion Curry. Mann delivered the first big hit of the inning connecting on a two-out, two-run single to right field to send Hairston and McKay home. Tyler Fitzgerald followed with a RBI single to right center to plate Josh Stowers for the 7-1 lead.

The Cardinals pushed across their eighth run of the night when Fitch led off the sixth inning by sending a 1-0 pitch from Robert Winborne into the trees beyond the right field wall for his 12th career home run. Louisville plated its final two runs of the game in the seventh inning on Drew Ellis' two-out, two-run single to center to score Taylor and Fitch.

Louisville and Georgia Tech will conclude the weekend series on Saturday at 1 p.m., ET.

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