Stowers Homers Twice as No. 25 Baseball Sweeps Notre Dame

Saturday, May 19

LOUISVILLE, KY

1:00 PM

University of Louisville

40-16, 18-12

NOTRE DAME

24-28, 12-18

Notre Dame

Louisville

Josh Stowers celebrates during Saturday's comeback win against Notre Dame.

Photo by: Jeff Reinking | Louisville Athletics

Stowers Homers Twice as No. 25 Baseball Sweeps Notre Dame

May 19, 2018 | Baseball

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Stowers goes 3-for-4 with career best six RBIs, including game-winning three-run homer in the eighth inning

By: Garett Wall

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Josh Stowers homered twice and drove in a career high six RBIs, including three on a game-winning blast in the eighth inning, to lead the No. 25 Louisville baseball team to a 10-7 comeback win and complete a series sweep of Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon at Jim Patterson Stadium.

The Cardinals (40-16, 18-12 ACC) scored the final seven runs of day to overcame a 7-3 deficit in the regular season finale for both teams. Louisville clinched its seventh consecutive 40-win season, including the sixth straight 40-win regular season, while also pushing its winning streak against the Fighting Irish (24-28, 12-18 ACC) to 16 games. UofL is the only program in the nation to win 40 or more regular season games in each of the last six seasons.

Louisville will enter next week's ACC Championship at Durham Bulls Athletic Park as the No. 5 seed and will be in Pool D with No. 4 Duke and No. 9 Wake Forest. The ACC Baseball Championship begins Tuesday and will feature a pool-play format, leading into a four-team, single-elimination bracket to determine the league champion. The complete schedule for the 2018 ACC Baseball Championship will be released Sunday morning (May 20).

Capped by his three-run homer in the eighth inning to break a 7-7 tie and propel the Cardinals into the lead for good, Stowers finished 3-for-4 at the plate delivering his second career two-home run game. The six RBIs surpassed his previous high mark of four achieved three times, The six RBIs were also the most for a Louisville player since Brendan McKay's nine RBIs at Eastern Kentucky on April 25, 2017.

Stowers has reached base safely in 39 straight games and has hit safely in his last nine games. In his last 28 games, Stowers has a .417 batting average with five home runs, 31 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. Overall, Stowers closed the regular season with a team-leading .335 batting average, seven home runs, 49 RBIs and 33 stolen bases in 40 attempts.

Jake Snider was 3-for-5 and scored twice while Tyler Fitzgerald finished 2-for-5 with a double, one RBI and two runs scored. Logan Wyatt was 1-for-2 with three walks and scored two runs. Wyatt has 56 walks this season, tied for the third most in a single season in school history matching the total achieved by Walt Cashen in 1981.

On the mound, junior righthander Bryan Hoeing twirled 4.2 innings of shutout relief with two strikeouts to earn the victory and improve to 7-2 on the season. Sophomore righty Michael McAvene pitched a scoreless ninth inning to register his second save of the season.

The Fighting Irish started fast Saturday plating a pair of runs in the first inning on a solo home run from Cole Daily and a RBI single by Niko Kavadas. Daily connected on a leadoff home run sending 3-1 pitch over the left field wall for his third homer of the season. Jake Johnson followed the home run with a walk and advanced two bases on a pair of wild pitches before scoring on the single to right by Kavadas.

Notre Dame's advantage increased to 3-0 in the third inning on a solo home run by Nick Podkul, who sent a 2-2 pitch over the left field wall for his eighth round-tripper of the season.

The Cardinals evened the score thanks to a three-run third inning. Justin Lavey started the inning with a double down the right field line before scoring on Fitzgerald's RBI double down the right field line. Fitzgerald moved to third on a bunt single by Snider and scored the second run of the inning on a throwing error by Notre Dame pitcher Tommy Sheehan. After advancing to third a deep fly out to center off the bat of Devin Mann, Snider scored from third on a RBI bunt single by Stowers.

The Fighting Irish regained the lead with a four-run fourth inning. David LaManna connected on a two-run single to score Alex Kerschner and Eric Gilgenbach. Johnson added a RBI single to right field and Podkul added a RBI sac fly to right field for the 7-3 advantage.

Louisville started its comeback in the fifth inning on a two-run homer from Stowers. After Wyatt led off the inning with a walk, Stowers powered a 2-1 pitch from Andrew Belcik into the left field bleachers for his 12th career home run.

The Notre Dame lead was cut to 7-6 in the seventh inning on a pinch-hit RBI single by Ethan Stringer. Stowers started the chance with a two-out walk and advanced to third on a single to right center from Danny Oriente before going home on Stringer's base hit to left field.

The Cardinals completed their comeback with a four-run eighth inning. The decisive frame started with a leadoff single off Zack Martin by Fitzgerald, who advanced to third on a single by Snider before scoring the tying run on a RBI sacrifice fly off the bat of Mann. After Wyatt singled to right off Cole Kmet, Stowers hammered the first pitch of his at-bat over the left field wall for his 13th career blast.

The Fighting Irish connected on a two-out double in the ninth against McAvene but a fly out to left ended the game. Martin took the loss for the Fighting Irish and dropped to 2-2 on the season.

Prior to Saturday's game, the Louisville baseball program honored its 2018 senior class -- lefthanded pitcher Austin Conway, righty pitcher Mac Welsh, lefty pitcher Rabon Martin and managers Max Kestler and Graham Swink.

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

ABOUT THE 2018 ACC CHAMPIONSHIP
Coastal Division champion North Carolina and Atlantic Division champion Clemson are the top two seeds for the 2018 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Championship, which gets underway Tuesday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, North Carolina.

North Carolina (37-17, 22-8 ACC) earned the No. 1 overall seed and will head up Pool A. The Tar Heels will be joined by eighth-seeded Georgia Tech (31-25, 14-16) and 12th-seeded Pitt (27-25, 11-19). Pool B features No. 2 Clemson (43-13, 22-8), along with No. 7 Miami (27-25, 16-13) and No. 11 Notre Dame (24-28, 12-18). No. 3 NC State (40-14, 19-11) is joined in Pool C by No. 6 Florida State (39-17, 16-13) and No. 10 Virginia (28-24, 12-18), while Pool D features No. 4 Duke (39-14, 18-11), No. 5 Louisville (40-16, 18-12), and No. 9 Wake Forest (25-30, 13-17).

Each team in the four pools will play one game against each of the other two opponents in its pool Tuesday through Friday (May 22-25). The four teams with the best records within their respective pools will advance to Saturday's semifinals, with the winners playing on Sunday in the ACC Championship Game.

Game times Tuesday through Friday are set for 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday's semifinals are scheduled for 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., while Sunday's championship will begin at noon.