Stowers Homers Twice in Victorious Opener with Toledo

Friday, April 28

LOUISVILLE, KY

4:00 PM

University of Louisville

36-6

TOLEDO

14-28

Toledo

Louisville

The Cardinals celebrate after one of Josh Stowers' two home runs on Friday.

April 28, 2017 | Baseball

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Sophomore outfielder hit first two collegiate home runs and added career high four RBI

By: Garett Wall

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Josh Stowers connected for a pair of home runs and drove in a career best four RBI to lead the No. 2 Louisville baseball team in Friday's 5-4 series-opening victory against Toledo at Jim Patterson Stadium.

The home runs were the first two collegiate round-trippers for Stowers, who made his 36th start of the season and 62nd career appearance in Friday's victory. The sophomore from Westchester, Illinois, who added a spectacular diving catch in left field, was 2-for-3 at the plate while both home runs evened the score for the Cardinals, who overcame a 4-1 deficit to improve to 36-6 overall.

Friday's victory marked the third straight game a Louisville player has connected for multiple home runs after Brendan McKay equaled the school record with four home runs in Tuesday's win at Eastern Kentucky and Drew Ellis homered twice on Wednesday in the victory against Northern Kentucky at Louisville Slugger Field. Overall, the Cardinals have 11 home runs in their three games this week.

Along with the heroics from Stowers, Louisville also received a strong contribution offensively from Ellis, who was 2-for-3 at the plate with a run scored and the game-winning RBI sacrifice fly in the eighth inning. The junior corner infielder raised his batting average to .392 overall to go with a team-leading 42 RBI and 12 home runs.

Making his 10th start of the season on the mound, McKay earned the victory and moved to 6-3 on the season after registering 12 strikeouts with one walk and allowing four runs on three hits in eight innings on Friday. The junior lefthander has 95 strikeouts to just 16 walks in 67.0 innings this season and a 2.15 ERA. He also improved his career record to 27-10 while increasing his career strikeout total to 340, second highest total in school history behind only the 376 for Kyle Funkhouser (2013-16).

Sophomore righthander Sam Bordner worked a scoreless ninth inning to earn his second save of the season and extend his season-opening scoreless streak to 25.2 innings. Bordner has 19 strikeouts and just four walks in his 15 appearances, all out of the bullpen, this season.

Toledo opened the scoring Friday when Ross Adolph connected on a two-out solo home run to right center in the second inning for his fourth long ball of the season. Louisville evened the score at 1-1 in the fifth inning when Stowers crushed a 3-1 pitch from Steven Calhoun sending it to the top of the left field berm.

The Rockets regained the lead in the seventh when Dalton Bollinger delivered a three-run homer to left for a 4-1 advantage. Riley Campbell led off the inning with a double to left center and was followed by a walk to Matt Hansen before Bollinger sent a 0-1 pitch from McKay over the left field wall for his sixth home run of the season.

The Cardinals answered in the bottom of the seventh on another home run from Stowers, a three-run shot to left to tie the score at 4-4. Ellis started the inning with a single through the left side and Devin Mann followed with a walk. One batter later, Stowers launched a 2-1 pitch from Calhoun over the wall in left to pull the home side even for the second time in the game.

Louisville gained its first lead of the day in the eighth inning on a RBI sacrifice fly to center from Ellis. Devin Hairston started the decisive inning with a one-out walk before moving to third on a single through the right side by McKay. Following a pitching change, Ellis sent a 2-2 pitch from Luke Schaefer deep enough to center to allow Hairston to score the game-winning run without a play at the plate.

The No. 2 Cardinals and Rockets are slated to continue their series on Saturday at 1 p.m., while the weekend finale is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. Admission is free throughout the weekend.

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