Season Ends for No. 21 Cardinals with NCAA Loss at No. 9 Texas Tech

Sunday, June 3

Lubbock, Texas

7:24 PM

University of Louisville

45-19

Texas Tech

42-17

Texas Tech

Louisville

Josh Stowers slides around the tag in Sunday's loss at Texas Tech. (Photo: Gary Wolf)

Season Ends for No. 21 Cardinals with NCAA Loss at No. 9 Texas Tech

June 04, 2018 | Baseball

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Louisville finishes 45-19 overall after advancing to NCAA Regional final for seventh straight season

By: Garett Wall

LUBBOCK, Texas - The 21st-ranked Louisville baseball team concluded its 2018 season with a 11-6 loss to No. 9 Texas Tech in the championship round of the NCAA Lubbock Regional on Sunday night at Rip Griffin Park.

The Cardinals finished with a 45-19 record overall after advancing to the final round of an NCAA Regional for the seventh straight season. Louisville also registered its seventh straight 40-win season and the 11th in 12 seasons under head coach Dan McDonnell. Texas Tech will face the winner of the NCAA Athens Regional in next week's NCAA Super Regional.

After earning a 12-6 win over Kent State in an elimination game on Sunday afternoon, the Cardinals were unable to overcome an early deficit in the nightcap. The Red Raiders erupted for four runs in the first inning before building a 9-1 lead in the sixth. Louisville pulled as close as 9-6 in the eighth inning before Tech added two final runs in the ninth.

Jake Snider, who was named to the NCAA All-Lubbock Regional Team with Danny Oriente and Logan Wyatt, paced the way for the Cardinals on Sunday night as the sophomore was 3-for-5 with a home run and two RBIs. Wyatt was 2-for-4 with one RBI and a run scored and Drew Campbell finished 2-for-5 with a double and one RBI. Justin Lavey had two hits and drove in a run, while Devin Mann doubled, had one RBI and scored once. Josh Stowers walked and scored once while extending his reached base safely streak to 47 games to end the season.

Texas Tech started fast on Sunday night scoring four runs in the first inning, highlighted by a three-run homer by Zach Rheams. Gabe Holt was hit by a pitch from freshman lefty Reid Detmers to start the game and moved to second and third on passed balls before scoring on Josh Jung's single to right center. Later in the inning, with two runners on base and one out, Rheams pulled a 2-0 offering over the right field wall for his 15th homer of the season.

The advantage moved to 5-0 in the second on Cody Farhat's home run to start the inning. The right-handed hitting catcher sent a 3-2 pitch the other way for a solo home run over the right field wall.

156052 — Jake Snider had three hits against Tech on Sunday. (Photo: Gary Wolf)

Tech plated its sixth run of the night in the fourth inning when Holt scored from second after the Cardinals were unable to complete an inning-ending double play. The lead increased to 7-0 in the fifth after a dropped by fly ball by Louisville extended the inning and allowed Farhat to drive Rheams home with a sacrifice fly.

After the Cardinals plated their first run of the night in the fifth inning on a RBI sacrifice fly by Mann to plate Tyler Fitzgerald, the Red Raiders added two runs in the top of the sixth inning on a RBI groundout by Jung and a RBI single from Rheams.

Louisville narrowed the margin to 9-2 in the sixth inning on a RBI sacrifice fly by Lavey to score Stowers. The Cardinals added their third run in the seventh on Campbell's RBI single to plate Wyatt.

The Cardinals continued their late rally with three runs in the eighth inning. Snider started the scoring in the inning by belting a 2-2 pitch from Caleb Freeman over the right field wall to score Fitzgerald for a two-run homer. Wyatt added a two-out RBI single to send Mann home and cut the deficit to 9-6. The inning ended with Stowers flying out to the track in left field.

Texas Tech ended the comeback attempt by Louisville by scoring a pair of runs in the ninth inning. Rheams connected on his second homer of the night sending a solo shot out to right and Farhat added a RBI single for the final margin.

Rheams, who was named as the Most Valuable Player of the NCAA Lubbock Regional, finished 4-for-4 with two home runs and five RBIs for Tech, while Farhat was 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Holt had two hits and scored three runs and Klein added two hits and scored twice. Davin Martin earned the win over the Red Raiders after allowing two runs on five hits in 5.0+ innings.

Detmers took the loss for the Cardinals and dropped to 4-2 on the season after allowing five runs on five hits in 2.0+ innings. Sophomore Adam Elliott provided a lift for the Cardinals out of the bullpen as the lefthander retired all six batters he faced.

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

2018 NCAA ALL-LUBBOCK REGIONAL TEAM
C - Pete Schuler (Kent State)
INF - Logan Wyatt (Louisville)
INF - Brian Klein (Texas Tech)
INF - Caleb Henderson (New Mexico State)
INF - Josh Jung (Texas Tech)
OF - Jake Snider (Louisville)
OF - Cody Farhat (Texas Tech)
OF - Grant Little (Texas Tech)
DP - Zach Rheams (Texas Tech)
DP - Danny Oriente (Louisville)
P - Caleb Killian (Texas Tech)
P - Ryan Shetter (Texas Tech)
P - Kyle Bradish (New Mexico State)