No. 6 Louisville Hits Road to Cincinnati Tuesday

GAME DAY INFORMATION
#6 Louisville at Cincinnati
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Venue: Marge Schott Stadium (3,085)
Twitter Updates: @LouisvilleBSB
Game Notes: Louisville | Cincinnati

Tuesday, April 23 | 6:00 p.m. ET | Live Stats
TV: Online Stream | Radio: 93.9 The Ville
LOU: Fr. RHP Jack Perkins (2-0, 2.33 ERA)
UC: Fr. RHP Andrew Noelker (0-0, 5.06 ERA)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Winners of eight of the last nine, the sixth-ranked Louisville baseball team takes to the road on Tuesday for a nonconference date at Cincinnati at 6:00 p.m., ET at Marge Schott Stadium. The game is available through online stream only and radio coverage will be available on 93.9 The Ville. Live scoring is available at GoCards.com.

ABOUT THE LOUISVILLE CARDINALS
The Louisville offense kept rolling over the weekend, as the Cardinals took two out of three from No. 22 Miami at Jim Patterson Stadium. UofL won the opener 7-5 before the Hurricanes captured the second game 16-11 in a contest that spread across Friday and Saturday. Louisville fell behind 6-0 in the first inning of the series finale, but rallied back and scored nine unanswered runs to finish off the weekend with a 9-6 triumph.

The Cardinals notched double digit hits in all three games, upping their streak of consecutive games with at least 10 hits to seven. The two wins also kept Louisville on top of the ACC Atlantic Division standings, now two games ahead of North Carolina State in second place. UofL will be in nonconference action for the next five games starting Tuesday with Cincinnati before a three-game weekend with Alabama A&M and a single game against Western Kentucky.

The Cardinals began head coach Dan McDonnell's 13th season ranked as high as fourth in the national polls. UofL is coming off a 45-19 record in 2018, its seventh straight 40-win season and the 11th in 12 seasons under McDonnell. The Cardinals advanced to the championship round of an NCAA Regional for the seventh straight season.

ABOUT CINCINNATI
Cincinnati comes into Tuesday's game at 18-21 overall, but is tied for third in the American Athletic Conference with a 8-7 record in league play. The Bearcats won the opening game of their weekend series at Houston on Thursday, but dropped the final two.

Speed and defense has been the name of the game for the Bearcats in 2019, as they lead the AAC in stolen bases per game, triples, double plays and fielding percentage.

SERIES HISTORY
Longtime conference foes, Louisville and Cincinnati will be meeting for the 181st time on Tuesday evening. The Cardinals hold a 99-81 edge in the all-time series, including a resounding 24-6 victory at Jim Patterson Stadium last season.

Louisville has won 12 of the last 13 games between the two programs, but lost 6-3 in 2017 in its last visit to Cincinnati. Under Dan McDonnell, the Cardinals are 23-5 against Cincinnati.

TEAM NOTES AND TRENDS

The Louisville offense tallied double digit hits in each of the last seven games, giving it 20 games this season with at least 10. The Cardinals are 27-1 this season when they outhit the opposition.
The Cardinals have been on a tear over the last nine games, hitting .374 as a team with an 8-1 record. Louisville is averaging 10.8 runs and 14.6 hits during that span with 48 extra-base hits. UofL's team batting average has improved from .254 to .285 over the last nine games.
Louisville pitching currently leads the ACC in ERA (3.62), WHIP (1.18), strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.72), strikeouts per nine innings (10.3) and hits allowed per nine innings (6.87).
Louisville's starting pitcher has pitched five innings or more with one earned run or fewer allowed in 16 games this season.
UofL has had a starting pitcher throw seven no-hit innings on three occasions this season, with Reid Detmers doing it against Brown and James Madison, and Bobby Miller against Wake Forest.
Louisville pitchers set a Jim Patterson Stadium record with 18 strikeouts against Georgia Tech on March 22. The Cardinals have struck out 10 or more in 24 games this season, with a 21-3 record when doing so.
The Cardinals have been active offensively in the first inning this season, plating at least one run in the opening inning of 22 games. Louisville has scored 37 first inning runs overall and is 18-4 when scoring in the first.
Logan Wyatt is third in the country with 45 walks through 40 games and is currently on pace for 63 this season. The UofL single season record in 69 by Kevin Malone in 1980. Wyatt moved to ninth all-time on Louisville's career walk list with three walks vs. NKU.
Louisville swiped a season-high nine bases on March 6 against Morehead State. It was the most since the Cardinals finished with 10 stolen bases against Eastern Kentucky on Feb. 20, 2013. UofL currently ranks second in the ACC with 77 stolen bases on the year. Louisville has finished in the top five in the country in stolen bases in four of the last six seasons.
In the victory over Morehead State on March 6, the Cardinals set a program record with eight different players recording a stolen base.
The Cardinals are 27-0 this season when leading after eight innings. From 2012-17, Louisville accumulated a six-year record of 266-3 when entering the ninth with a lead, including a 50-0 mark in 2017.
UofL has won 36 of its 47 ACC series since joining the league and is 39-7 in its series finales during that span, including an 12-4 record in rubber games.
The Cardinals have won 19 of their 24 ACC series at home since debuting in the conference.
Twelve different Cardinals have made their Louisville debuts this season (Albanese, Binelas, Davis, Leonard, Lohman, Masterman, Metzinger, Perkins, Poland, Schmeltz, Smith and Wright). It was the collegiate debut for 11 of the 12.
While at Louisville, coach Dan McDonnell has guided the Cardinals to four College World Series berths, seven NCAA Super Regional appearances, 11 NCAA Regional bids, eight regular season conference championships and two conference tournament titles with 37 All-Americans.

WYATT VOTED ACC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Junior Logan Wyatt became the second straight Louisville player to be named the ACC Player of the Week after a blistering hot four-game week.

It marked the first time the Cardinals have won the conference's Player of the Week award in consecutive weeks since joining the league in 2015.

Wyatt hit .550 (11-for-20) as the Cardinals picked up a win at Kentucky and took two of three from Miami. The junior had three doubles, three homers and drove in 12 runs over the four games. Wyatt also had one of the highlights of the week with a straight steal of home in the fifth inning of Saturday's series finale as the Cardinals rallied back from a 6-0 deficit to win 9-6.

WYATT DISPLAYING ALL-AMERICAN PROWESS OF LATE
A third-team All-America selection in 2018, Logan Wyatt got off to a slow start offensively this season. However, that has changed over the last two weeks, with Wyatt racking up offensive numbers at a torrid pace.

FIRST 32 GAMES		LAST 8 GAMES
.269 batting average (28-104)		.472 batting average (17-36)
4 doubles		5 doubles
3 home runs		4 home runs
18 RBIs		20 RBIs
3 stolen bases		3 stolen bases

OFFENSIVE BINGE CARRYING CARDINALS TO TOP OF ACC STANDINGS
Following a second straight loss at Clemson on April 6, the Cardinals found themselves in third in the ACC Atlantic Division standings with an offense that ranked near the bottom of the league in most categories.

Louisville rallied for an 11-inning victory over the Tigers in the series finale, starting an offensive surge that has seen the Cardinals win eight of their last nine and vault to a two-game lead in the ACC.

While the pitching shouldered the load for the first half of the 2019 season, the second half of the campaign has been led by an offense as hot as any in the country.

FIRST 31 GAMES		LAST 9 GAMES
.254 batting average		.374 batting average
8.5 hits per game		14.6 hits per game
6.0 runs per game		10.8 runs per game
46 doubles		34 doubles
19 home runs		10 home runs
.368 slugging percentage		.580 slugging percentage

FITZGERALD NAMED TO BROOKS WALLACE AWARD WATCH LIST
Louisville shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald was named to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List, announced by the College Baseball Foundation.

The award, sponsored by Mizuno, honors the nation's top shortstop and will be presented this summer by the College Baseball Foundation. It is named for former Texas Tech shortstop Brooks Wallace, who played for the Red Raiders from 1977 to 1980. Wallace died of leukemia at the age of 27.

Fitzgerald is one of 69 players, including eight from the ACC, on the watch list. The Rochester, Illinois, native has started every game at shortstop this season, leading the Cardinals in hits, doubles, RBIs and total bases.

LOUISVILLE'S BACK END BULLPEN RESURGENCE
Louisville has consistently produced top of the line bullpen arms, many of which are spread across pro baseball. This season is no different, with the Cardinals a perfect 24-0 when leading after eight innings.

Michael Kirian and Michael McAvene have been key pieces at the end of games in 2019 with marked improvement from their 2018 numbers. Kirian held a 12.71 ERA in 11.1 innings as a freshman last season, while McAvene had a 4.55 ERA over his two-year career entering 2019. This season, Kirian is 2-0 with three saves and has given up just three runs in 21 innings for a 1.29 ERA. McAvene is 2-0 with four saves and four runs allowed in 19.1 innings. The duo has combined to strike out 52 batters with just eight walks.

McAvene and Kirian pitched the final six innings of the series finale at Clemson, striking out eight with no runs and just three hits allowed. The pair also worked 4.1 scoreless to close out Louisville's come from behind win in the final game against Miami.

LOUISVILLE LEADS COUNTRY IN WINS SINCE 2007
Dan McDonnell took the reins of the Louisville baseball program in 2007. Louisville entered 2019 with the most wins of any Division I program from 2007-18 with 554.

Most Wins Since 2007
1. Louisville		585
2. North Carolina		579
3. LSU		577
4. Florida State		576
5. Vanderbilt		568

LOUISVILLE IN NATIONAL POLLS EVERY WEEK SINCE START OF 2012
Louisville, which surpassed its previous high national ranking of No. 2 (in 2016) with the No. 1 ranking on March 13 and March 20 during the 2017 season, has enjoyed a historic run by remaining ranked in at least one major national poll every week since the release of the 2012 preseason rankings -- the longest such span in school history.

Ranked in the top 25 in all six major preseason polls for 2019, the Cardinals have earned a preseason national ranking in 11 straight seasons (2008-2018) overall. Louisville entered the 2019 season ranked fourth in the D1Baseball rankings, eighth in the Perfect Game and USA Today polls, ninth in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and NCBWA rankings and 11th by Baseball America.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Reid Detmers

Tyler Fitzgerald

Michael Kirian

Michael McAvene

Bobby Miller

Jack Perkins

Logan Wyatt

University of Louisville Athletics