Friday, May 31
LOUISVILLE, KY
6:00 PM
University of Louisville
vs
Illinois Chicago
Photo by: Jeff Reinking | Louisville Athletics
Cardinals Begin NCAA Championship Against Illinois Chicago
May 30, 2019 | Baseball
First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m., ET Friday at Jim Patterson Stadium.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 2019 NCAA Championship gets underway on Friday for the Louisville baseball team as the Cardinals host the Louisville Regional at Jim Patterson Stadium. UofL, the No. 7 national seed, will host regional No. 4 seed Illinois Chicago on Friday at 6 p.m., ET, while No. 2 Indiana and No. 3 Illinois State will square off Friday at 2 p.m., ET. All games of the Louisville Regional will air on ESPN3. Radio coverage for all of Louisville's NCAA Championship games will be available on 93.9 The Ville and live scoring is available at GoCards.com.
ABOUT THE LOUISVILLE CARDINALS
Louisville is making its 12th NCAA postseason appearance during head coach Dan McDonnell's 13 seasons and the program's 13th NCAA appearance overall. After traveling to Texas Tech in the regional round in 2018, the Cardinals are back in the friendly confines of Jim Patterson Stadium, where they have won 15 consecutive regional games.
UofL enters the 2019 NCAA Championship as a national seed for the fifth time in program history. The Cardinals captured their fourth ACC Atlantic Division title in the five years as a member of the league and reached 40 regular season wins for the seventh consecutive season. Louisville enters the postseason ranked in all six major polls, including No. 7 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper rankings.
All-ACC selections Alex Binelas, Tyler Fitzgerald, Justin Lavey and Logan Wyatt lead the Louisville offense that finished the regular season as the conference leader in batting average, hits, runs and stolen bases.
Meanwhile, the league's top pitching staff is led by ACC Pitcher of the Year Reid Detmers and All-ACC closer Michael McAvene. Detmers enters the regional just one strikeout shy of Louisville's single season record and captured the ACC's pitching triple crown during the regular season.
SERIES HISTORY
Louisville and Illinois Chicago will be meeting for the very first time when they square off on Friday evening. The Cardinals are 4-5 in nine previous meetings with Illinois State, the most recent of which saw UofL win two of three against the Redbirds in Dan McDonnell's first season.
The Cardinals and Hoosiers have a long history that dates back to 1937. Indiana holds a 28-23 edge in the all-time series, but Louisville picked up an 8-7 victory in 12 innings in Bloomington on May 14. The two teams have met twice in the postseason, with Louisville winning in the 2009 regional opener, and IU coming out on top in the 2013 College World Series.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
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.
FEELING AT HOME INSIDE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM
Since opening the gates at Jim Patterson Stadium in 2005, the Cardinals have won more than 77 percent of their games in the ballpark posting a 396-113 record (.778 winning percentage), including an impressive 33-4 mark during the 2017 season at the corner of Third and Central. The Cardinals are 25-6 on their home field this season. Louisville set a school record for home wins with 36 in 2016 and the Cardinals have registered 30 or more wins at home in four of the last six seasons.
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 12 straight seasons (2008-2019) 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.
CARDINALS CONTINUE EXCELLENCE IN THE CLASSROOM
Louisville baseball wrapped up the spring semester with a cumulative team grade point average of 3.31 to mark its 16th consecutive semester with a 3.0 or higher.
Overall, 33 student-athletes amassed a 3.0 GPA or better during the spring semester, with 16 members on the Dean's List. The span of 16 straight semesters with a team GPA of 3.0 or better coincides with unparalleled success on the field for Louisville, which has three College World Series appearances, five NCAA Super Regional berths, seven NCAA Regional bids and seven conference championships during those eight seasons.
Five members of the Louisville baseball program earned their undergraduate degrees from UofL at the conclusion of the semester. Current players Bryan Hoeing, J.D. Mundt, Zeke Pinkham and Pat Rumoro, along with bullpen catcher Gabe Burchell received their bachelor's degrees.
ABOUT THE LOUISVILLE CARDINALS
Louisville is making its 12th NCAA postseason appearance during head coach Dan McDonnell's 13 seasons and the program's 13th NCAA appearance overall. After traveling to Texas Tech in the regional round in 2018, the Cardinals are back in the friendly confines of Jim Patterson Stadium, where they have won 15 consecutive regional games.
UofL enters the 2019 NCAA Championship as a national seed for the fifth time in program history. The Cardinals captured their fourth ACC Atlantic Division title in the five years as a member of the league and reached 40 regular season wins for the seventh consecutive season. Louisville enters the postseason ranked in all six major polls, including No. 7 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper rankings.
All-ACC selections Alex Binelas, Tyler Fitzgerald, Justin Lavey and Logan Wyatt lead the Louisville offense that finished the regular season as the conference leader in batting average, hits, runs and stolen bases.
Meanwhile, the league's top pitching staff is led by ACC Pitcher of the Year Reid Detmers and All-ACC closer Michael McAvene. Detmers enters the regional just one strikeout shy of Louisville's single season record and captured the ACC's pitching triple crown during the regular season.
SERIES HISTORY
Louisville and Illinois Chicago will be meeting for the very first time when they square off on Friday evening. The Cardinals are 4-5 in nine previous meetings with Illinois State, the most recent of which saw UofL win two of three against the Redbirds in Dan McDonnell's first season.
The Cardinals and Hoosiers have a long history that dates back to 1937. Indiana holds a 28-23 edge in the all-time series, but Louisville picked up an 8-7 victory in 12 innings in Bloomington on May 14. The two teams have met twice in the postseason, with Louisville winning in the 2009 regional opener, and IU coming out on top in the 2013 College World Series.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
- Louisville has advanced to an NCAA Super Regional seven times and the College World Series four times in its 12 previous NCAA Championship berths. The Cardinals are 28-12 in NCAA Regional games, 9-7 in NCAA Super Regional games and 2-8 in College World Series games.
- Making their eighth straight NCAA Championship appearance and the 12th in the last 13 seasons under head coach Dan McDonnell, the Cardinals are 39-25 overall in NCAA postseason games during that span.
- Louisville is hosting the regional round for the eighth time in the last 11 seasons. The Cardinals have won six of the previous seven regionals at Jim Patterson Stadium and are 20-3 in regional games at home with 15 consecutive victories.
- UofL is a national seed for the fifth time in program history, and is one of just two programs to be a national seed four times in the last five seasons.
- The Cardinals were among eight ACC teams in the 2019 NCAA Championship -- Clemson, Duke, Florida, State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina and North Carolina State.
- Louisville competed against 11 of the other 63 teams in this year's NCAA Championship field during the regular season going 17-10 against those teams.
- During his previous 14 seasons as a collegiate coach entering 2019, including his final two seasons as an assistant at Ole Miss in 2005 and 2006, McDonnell advanced to 13 NCAA Regionals and nine NCAA Super Regionals to go along with four College World Series berths.
- Junior Danny Oriente went 8-for-15 (.533) with a pair of doubles and five RBIs in four games during the 2018 NCAA Championship, earning him a spot on the All-Lubbock Regional Team.
- Junior Jake Snider is 16-for-32 (.500) in nine career NCAA Championship contests, tallying two home runs, seven runs scored and 9 RBIs. Snider was named to the All-Lubbock Regional Team in 2018.
- Junior Logan Wyatt was an All-Lubbock Regional Team selection in 2018 after going 6-for-16 (.375) at the plate with two home runs and 10 RBIs.
- Juniors Drew Campbell, Tyler Fitzgerald and Justin Lavey each started all four games of the Lubbock Regional in 2018. Fitzgerald also started three games in the 2017 NCAA Championship, while Lavey started one.
- Junior Nick Bennett has made three career starts in the NCAA Championships, while sophomores Reid Detmers and Bobby Miller each made a start in the 2018 postseason.
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 | 597 | |
| 2. North Carolina | 591 | |
| 3. Florida State | 588 | |
| LSU | 588 | |
| 5. Vanderbilt | 586 | |
FEELING AT HOME INSIDE JIM PATTERSON STADIUM
Since opening the gates at Jim Patterson Stadium in 2005, the Cardinals have won more than 77 percent of their games in the ballpark posting a 396-113 record (.778 winning percentage), including an impressive 33-4 mark during the 2017 season at the corner of Third and Central. The Cardinals are 25-6 on their home field this season. Louisville set a school record for home wins with 36 in 2016 and the Cardinals have registered 30 or more wins at home in four of the last six seasons.
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 12 straight seasons (2008-2019) 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.
CARDINALS CONTINUE EXCELLENCE IN THE CLASSROOM
Louisville baseball wrapped up the spring semester with a cumulative team grade point average of 3.31 to mark its 16th consecutive semester with a 3.0 or higher.
Overall, 33 student-athletes amassed a 3.0 GPA or better during the spring semester, with 16 members on the Dean's List. The span of 16 straight semesters with a team GPA of 3.0 or better coincides with unparalleled success on the field for Louisville, which has three College World Series appearances, five NCAA Super Regional berths, seven NCAA Regional bids and seven conference championships during those eight seasons.
Five members of the Louisville baseball program earned their undergraduate degrees from UofL at the conclusion of the semester. Current players Bryan Hoeing, J.D. Mundt, Zeke Pinkham and Pat Rumoro, along with bullpen catcher Gabe Burchell received their bachelor's degrees.
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1B
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