No. 4 Louisville Baseball Slugs Past Eastern Kentucky

Tuesday, March 19

Richmond, KY

5:00 PM

University of Louisville

17-4

Eastern Kentucky

11-9

Louisville

Eastern Kentucky

Zeke Pinkham high fives Eric Snider at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Photo by: Jermaine Bibb | Louisville Athletics

March 19, 2019 | Baseball

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The Cardinals swept the season series with the Colonels behind a 12-8 win on Tuesday.

By: Stephen Williams

RICHMOND, Ky. – The fourth-ranked Louisville baseball team completed a season sweep of Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday with a 12-8 victory over the Colonels at Earle Combs Stadium.

Louisville (17-4) has now matched its longest winning streak of the season at six as the Cardinals tallied their fourth consecutive road victory.

UofL notched double digit runs for the seventh time on the season and had at least 10 hits for the fourth time in the last five games and 10^th time overall.

The Cardinals plated a run in the first inning for the sixth consecutive game, getting a RBI single off the bat of Danny Oriente to plate Jake Snider. UofL has scored in the first inning in 14 of 21 games this season.

Eastern Kentucky (11-9) answered right back in the bottom half with a leadoff home run, but the Louisville offense surged forward in the middle innings.

Jared Poland doubled with the bases loaded and two away in the third to plate a pair and give the Cardinals the lead back. Alex Binelas then hit a leadoff homer to start the fourth to stretch the margin out to three. Jake Snider cashed in another run on a sacrifice fly and Oriente lined a bases loaded single to center to drive in two more.

The Colonels put two runs up in the bottom half of the fourth, however the Cardinals got the two back immediately and kept adding on.

Zeke Pinkham launched his first long ball of the season with one away in the fifth and Trey Leonard followed it up with the first of his collegiate career. Logan Wyatt singled home Tyler Fitzgerald later in the inning to give the Cardinals a 10-3 advantage.

Louisville tacked on two more runs in the sixth and appeared to be cruising to the victory. However, EKU rallied for five runs in the bottom of the sixth to get back within four.

Jared Poland moved from second base to the mound to start the seventh and proceeded to pitch a pair of scoreless innings. Michael Kirian then slammed the door shut by striking out the side in the ninth.

Binelas, Fitzgerald, Leonard, Oriente and Wyatt all had two hits on the day for the Cardinals. All nine UofL starters had at least one run or RBI.

Luke Smith (2-0) earned the win, going five innings with three runs allowed on four hits.

Louisville returns to conference play this weekend with a three-game series against Georgia Tech. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. ET at Jim Patterson Stadium.