Louisville Baseball Takes 4-2 Loss to Illinois State

Saturday, June 1

LOUISVILLE, KY

4:00 PM

University of Louisville

44-16

Illinois State

36-24

Louisville

Illinois State

Photo by: Jermaine Bibb | Louisville Athletics

June 01, 2019 | Baseball

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The Cardinals will take on Indiana on Sunday at noon ET at Jim Patterson Stadium.

By: Stephen Williams

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On the first day of June, the seventh-ranked Louisville baseball team suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Illinois State on Saturday in the 2019 NCAA Regional at Jim Patterson Stadium.

The loss snaps a 16-game winning streak in NCAA regional home games for the Cardinals and drops Louisville (44-16) into the loser's bracket of the double elimination tournament. UofL will take on Indiana on Sunday at noon ET in the second meeting between the two teams this season. The Cardinals were victorious 8-7 in 12 innings on May 14 in Bloomington.

The winner of Sunday's first game will advance to the regional final where it will have to beat Illinois State twice, once Sunday evening at 6 p.m., ET and again Monday afternoon.

"Congratulations to Illinois State, those guys deserved to win," head coach Dan McDonnell said. "It's this time of year where you're playing good opponents, so we've got to play a little bit better and maybe catch a break or two.

"The good news is our season is not over. We still have life. We're still going to be ready to play good baseball tomorrow."

Reid Detmers (11-4) took just his second home loss of the season on Saturday. The left-hander allowed four runs on three hits over seven innings of work. Detmers struck out 11, moving him to the top of the UofL single season strikeout list with 156 overall.

The Chatham, Illinois, native entered the day needing just two punchouts to surpass Brendan McKay's 2017 output, and Detmers tallied the record-breaking strikeout in the second.

Illinois State struck first on Saturday, breaking through in a scoreless ballgame in the fourth. A one-out walk was doubled home to give the Redbirds the early advantage.

After being held without a run for five innings, the Cardinals finally found the scoreboard in the sixth. Justin Lavey led off with a single and Lucas Dunn worked a walk to put a pair on with nobody out. Jake Snider then loaded the bases after beating out a bunt down the third base line.

Tyler Fitzgerald knotted the game up at one with a groundout that scored Lavey, and Logan Wyatt put the Cardinals in front with a perfectly placed single into left-centerfield. Louisville threatened to add more, but a line drive off the bat of Alex Binelas found the glove of the first baseman who stepped on the bag to double up the runner and end the inning.

However, Illinois State answered back immediately in the bottom half. With runners on the corners and one out, the Cardinals had a chance at an inning-ending double play, but the batter beat the relay throw to first to allow the tying run to score and the inning to continue.

Following a walk, the Redbirds lined a pinch-hit two-run double into the left field corner that would prove to be the difference in the ballgame.

Louisville had just one baserunner over the final three frames, coming with one out in the eighth on Dunn's second walk of the game. It was erased on the very next batter though, as Snider's line drive was snagged at first base with the runner in motion for a second double play in three innings.

The Cardinals outhit Illinois State 6-3 on Saturday, marking just the second time this year Louisville has lost when it finished with more hits than the opposition.