Cardinals Set for Super Regional at Texas A&M

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville baseball team continues its postseason run with a trip to the Lone Star State for the NCAA Super Regional round at fifth-seeded Texas A&M. Game one is scheduled for Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPNU with game two set for Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The third game will be played on Sunday if necessary. All three games can be heard on 93.9 The Ville.

ABOUT THE CARDINALS
After falling into the losers' bracket, Louisville reeled off three consecutive wins to capture the NCAA Louisville Regional. Cameron Masterman's two-run homer in the eighth inning lifted the Cards to an 11-9 victory over Michigan in Monday's regional final.

The Cardinals are set to play in the program's ninth Super Regional and their seventh since 2013. The seven Super Regional appearances are tied for the most of any program during that span.

Playing in College Station will mark just the third Super Regional away from home for the Cardinals in program history. Louisville lost a pair of games at Cal State Fullerton in 2009 and then swept a pair at Vanderbilt in 2013.

SERIES HISTORY
Louisville and Texas A&M have only met one time previously, tangling in the opening round game at the 2017 College World Series. Colby Fitch drove in four, while Brendan McKay picked up the win as the Cards tallied an 8-4 victory.

NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTES

Louisville has advanced to a NCAA Super Regional nine times and the College World Series five times in its 14 NCAA Championship berths. The Cardinals are 36-14 in NCAA Regional games, 11-7 in NCAA Super Regional games and 4-10 in College World Series games.
Making their 13th NCAA Championship appearance in the last 15 seasons under head coach Dan McDonnell, the Cardinals are 51-29 overall in NCAA postseason games during that span.
The Cardinals were among nine ACC teams selected to the 2022 NCAA Championship -- Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, four of which reached a Super Regional.
Louisville competed against 11 of the other 63 teams in this year's NCAA Championship field during the regular season going 13-11-1 against those teams. The Cardinals are 6-4 against teams in a Super Regional.
During his previous 17 seasons as a collegiate coach entering 2022, including his final two seasons as an assistant at Ole Miss in 2005 and 2006, McDonnell advanced to 14 NCAA Regionals and 11 NCAA Super Regionals to go along with five College World Series berths.
The Cardinals have just five players on the current roster who played in the NCAA Tournament prior to this season. Ben Bianco appeared as a pinch-hitter in the 2018 Lubbock Regional, while Cameron Masterman did the same in the 2019 Super Regional. Carter Lohman, Jared Poland and Garrett Schmeltz all made relief appearances during the 2019 postseason.
Louisville hit .348 as a team in the NCAA Louisville Regional with 49 runs scored and 23 extra-base hits in five games.
Eight Cardinals were named to the All-NCAA Louisville Regional Team: Logan Beard, Christian Knapczyk, Tate Kuehner, Cameron Masterman, Ben Metzinger, Jack Payton, Riley Phillips, Levi Usher.
Cameron Masterman was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Louisville Regional, going 8-for-19 (.421) with four homers and nine RBIs. Masterman is tied with Logan Johnson (2007) for the second-most home runs in a single postseason in Louisville history, trailing only Chris Dominguez' seven in 2007.
Tate Kuehner made three scoreless relief appearances in the regional, pitching seven shutout innings and earning a win and two saves.

PLAYER NOTES

Christian Knapczyk returned to the lineup for the NCAA Regional after missing 10 games with an ankle injury suffered at Wake Forest. The sophomore made an immediate impact at the top of the Louisville lineup going 8-for-18 (.444) with seven walks, six runs scored and a pair of stolen bases. The Cardinals averaged just 6.2 runs per game in the 11 games Knapczyk didn't start, while averaging 9.3 in his 51 starts this season. Knapczyk leads the team with 70 runs scored and is fourth nationally with 1.35 runs per game.
Ben Metzinger returned fully healthy in 2022 and has been one of the pillars of the Louisville lineup. Metzinger is top 15 in the ACC in walks (2nd), runs (10th), RBIs (10th), total bases (10th) and home runs (11th). He earned ACC Player of the Week honors after tallying four straight multi-hit games against Lipscomb and Boston College. Metzinger owns walk-off home runs against Morehead State and North Carolina this season, the first walk-off blasts for the Cardinals since Nick Solak's home run beat Notre Dame on March 11, 2016.
Dalton Rushing has been a constant power threat in the middle of the order this season. The junior has homered 10 times in the last 17 games and has taken over the team lead with 22 long balls on the year. Rushing is currently seventh in the ACC in home runs and also third in walks, third in hit by pitch, sixth in runs, seventh in on-base percentage and eighth in slugging percentage.
Jack Payton played sparingly as a freshman, appearing in 13 games with seven starts. Payton tallied just six hits and two RBIs in his first season. He is currently leading the team with 28 multi-hit games on the season, including his first career four-hit game against SEMO in the NCAA Regional. Payton is tied for the ACC lead in doubles and ranks sixth in hits. His 23 doubles on the season are tied for fifth on Louisville's single-season list, four behind the record of 27 by Logan Johnson (2007) and Adam Duvall (2010).
Levi Usher went through his struggles during the 2021 season, hitting just .216 with five extra-base hits. The senior got off to another slow start this spring, going 3-for-27 out of the gate, but has returned to form and been a major part of the Louisville offense in 2022. Usher has hit .318 after the tough start with 23 extra-base hits and was outstanding at the plate in the NCAA Regional. In five games, Usher was 10-for-21 (.476) with seven RBIs, eight runs scored, three stolen bases and a clutch two-out, two-run single to tie the regional final against Michigan in the eighth inning.
Cameron Masterman was a major power threat for the Cardinals for the majority of the season. The senior tallied 14 home runs before the end of April, but hit a power slump in May and did not leave the yard in Louisville's final 15 games prior to the NCAA Regional. Masterman quickly put that to rest in the postseason though, homering in his first at-bat against SEMO and proceeding to homer in three of the next four games as well, including the game-winning two-run shot in the eighth inning of the regional final. Masterman took home Most Outstanding Player honors with his four home runs and nine RBIs.
Isaac Humphrey has quietly put together an excellent season for the Cardinals after not seeing action during the 2021 season. Humphrey is third on the team and ranks 11th in the ACC with a .461 on-base percentage. The sophomore led the Cardinals with a .351 avearge in ACC play this season and has been among Louisville's best hitters this season with runners in scoring position, hitting .371 (23-for-62) and reaching base at a .511 clip in that situation.
Logan Beard used the 2021 season as a redshirt year and has made the most of his opportunity to play in 2022. The Louisville native has started all but two games, hitting .310 with 12 doubles, four homers and 52 RBIs. Beard owns 21 multi-hit games on the season and has been one of Louisville's top hitters in big moments. He's currently hitting a team-best .373 with runners in scoring position, and the numbers climb to .447 with runners in scoring position and two outs.
Ben Bianco has already turned in a career season this spring setting career highs in runs (41), hits (58), triples (3), home runs (11) and RBIs (51). The fifth-year senior had five hits in the finale against Dartmouth, becoming the first Cardinal with five hits in a game since Alex Binelas did so against Alabama A&M on April 26, 2019. Bianco also homered in all three games of the weekend series against North Carolina, including a go-ahead grand slam in game two and a leadoff shot that helped sparked Louisville's ninth-inning rally in the finale. He hit a solo homer in Louisville's 1-0 win over Vanderbilt and is currently 32nd in the ACC in RBIs.
Jared Poland started his time at Louisville as a two-way player, playing second base and pitching out of the bullpen before moving into a pitcher-only role in 2021. The right-hander was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week after tossing seven scoreless innings against No. 1 Notre Dame, striking out 10. Poland put together an 18-inning scoreless streak from March 8-26, which included starts against ranked opponents TCU and Notre Dame. His best start was a career-long eight shutout innings with a career-high 13 strikeouts against Clemson. Poland struck out double digits in four ACC starts and ranks top 10 in the ACC in strikeouts per nine innings (5th), strikeouts (5th) and ERA (9th).
Tate Kuehner began the 2022 season as Louisville's Friday night starter, working in that role for the first eight weekends of the year. The southpaw moved back into his previous bullpen role during the Florida State series and has been one of the Cardinals' best pitchers since. Kuehner has made 16 relief appearances, allowing just seven earned runs in 33.2 innings for a 1.87 ERA and has tallied a pair of saves. Kuehner worked 14.2 consecutive scoreless innings across six appearances against Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Indiana, Virginia Tech, Eastern Kentucky and Virginia. He was then lights out in the NCAA Regional, with seven shutout innings on his way to a win and two saves
Michael Prosecky has taken over as the Louisville closer for the 2022 season after pitching in a variety of roles during his first two years. The southpaw recorded the final six outs in each of Louisville's first two victories, earning his first two career saves. Prosecky has continued his strong work out of the bullpen and put together 15 consecutive scoreless innings before allowing two unearned runs against North Carolina. The junior is second in the ACC with 11 saves, which is tied for the seventh-most in a single season in Louisville history.

RUSHING NAMED COLLEGIATE BASEBALL NEWSPAPER ALL-AMERICAN
Junior catcher Dalton Rushing was named to the Collegiate Baseball All-America second team. He is the 33rd player in Louisville program history to be named an All-American and the 45th overall All-America selection. The Cardinals have 41 All-America selections in Dan McDonnell's 16 seasons.

Rushing is hitting .310 on the season with 15 doubles, 22 home runs and 60 RBIs. He currently ranks top 10 in the ACC in walks, hit by pitch, runs, home runs, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

BEARD EARNS FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICA STATUS
Louisville second baseman Logan Beard was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball. He is the 19th player to earn Freshman All-America honors in program history and the 15th under head coach Dan McDonnell. He adds the Freshman All-America nod to his All-ACC Freshman Team honors he garnered last month

After sitting out the 2021 campaign, Beard has started 60 of 62 games this season at second base for the Cardinals. He enters the Super Regional round with a .310 average, 12 doubles, a triple and four home runs. He has also scored 40 runs and driven in 52.

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Players Mentioned

Logan Beard

Ben Bianco

Alex Binelas

Isaac Humphrey

Christian Knapczyk

Tate Kuehner

Carter Lohman

Cameron Masterman

Ben Metzinger

Jack Payton

Riley Phillips

Jared Poland

Michael Prosecky

Dalton Rushing

Garrett Schmeltz

Levi Usher

University of Louisville Athletics