No. 7 Cardinals Head to Eastern Kentucky Tuesday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The seventh-ranked University of Louisville baseball hits the road Tuesday for the first of four straight away from home as the Cardinals travel to Richmond to take on Eastern Kentucky. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET and the game will be televised on ESPN+. Radio coverage of the game will be available on 1450 WXVW.

ABOUT THE CARDINALS
The Cardinals capped a strong week with a three-game sweep of 13th-ranked Boston College over the weekend at Jim Patterson Stadium. Louisville fought off an early deficit in a 7-3 victory on Friday before dominant pitching led to a 5-0 win Saturday. The Cardinals then finished off the weekend with a late rally for an 8-6 triumph on Sunday.

The Louisville pitching staff stood strong in the weekend series against Boston College, allowing just four earned runs over the three games. BC entered the series averaging eight runs per game and hitting .279 as a team. UofL pitchers held the Eagles to a .200 average in the series.

SERIES HISTORY
Louisville and Eastern Kentucky will meet for the 121st time on Tuesday. The Cardinals are 71-48-1 all-time against the Colonels and 19-1 during Dan McDonnell's tenure. UofL has won 14 straight over EKU, the second-longest active streak for the Cardinals against a single opponent. The two teams have met in all but four seasons since 1980.

TEAM NOTES

Louisville has an .858 winning percentage (109-18) in regular season non-conference games since the start of 2016, including a 87-8 (.916) mark in regular season non-conference home games.
The Cardinals found their offense over the last seven games, scoring 56 runs on 77 hits during that stretch. Louisville currently leads the ACC in stolen bases and walks, ranks second in the ACC in hits, hit by pitch, on-base percentage and runs, and third in batting average.
The Cardinals have been the best in the country on the basepaths this season with 48 stolen bases, 30 more than anyone in the ACC. Levi Usher leads the ACC and country with 15, while Henry Davis is second in the ACC with seven and Luke Brown is tied for third with six.

PLAYER NOTES

Cooper Bowman slid into the leadoff spot for the three-game series at Georgia Tech and made an immediate impact. In seven games in the leadoff spot, Bowman is 12-for-27 (.444) with four home runs, eight RBIs and 10 runs scored. Bowman hit a leadoff homer on March 7 at Georgia Tech was the first for the Cardinals since Corey Ray at Miami on March 18, 2016. One game later, he became the first Cardinal since Alex Binelas in 2019 to homer twice in a single game.
Henry Davis has been the most consistent hitter for the Cardinals through 15 games, picking up at least one hit in every game so far. Following his first career four-hit game on Sunday against Boston College, Davis is currently hitting .407 and ranks fourth in the ACC with 22 hits and 15 RBIs. The catcher also ranks second in the conference with seven stolen bases after having just one through his first two seasons at Louisville.
Christian Knapczyk has started each of the last seven games at shortstop for the Cardinals and has been a sparkplug at the bottom of the UofL lineup. The freshman is 11-for-23 (.478) in his seven starts, tallying four doubles, a triple, eight RBIs and scoring eight times. Knapczyk has a hit in all nine games he's played in this season.
Levi Usher set a Louisville school record (since 2000) with five stolen bases in the win over Murray State. Usher is the national leader in stolen bases with 15, eight more than anyone else in the ACC. Since joining the Cardinals, Usher is 26-of-27 (15-for-15 this year) on the basepaths in 31 career games.
Lucas Dunn got off to a slow start in 2021, hitting just .167 (3-for-18) through the first five games of the season. However, Dunn is hitting .400 (14-for-35) over the last 10 games, including seven hits in the final two games at Georgia Tech. The junior now has hit average up to .321 on the season and is second on the team with 17 hits.
Michael Kirian has smoothly made the transition from closer to weekend start this season. The southpaw improved to 3-0 on the season after not yielding an earned run in five innings against Boston College. Since the start of the 2019 season, Kirian has a 1.16 ERA in 54.1 innings with 67 strikeouts and just 14 walks.
Kaleb Corbett has made a massive impact in his first season with the Cardinals. The right-hander has made seven relief appearances, tossing 11.1 scoreless innings with just five hits allowed and 17 strikeouts. Corbett earned the win against Eastern Kentucky and then went the final 3.1 innings in the finale versus Western Illinois for his first career save.

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Players Mentioned

Alex Binelas

Cooper Bowman

Luke Brown

Kaleb Corbett

Henry Davis

Lucas Dunn

Michael Kirian

Christian Knapczyk

Levi Usher

University of Louisville Athletics