University of Louisville
19-11, 0
NC State
18-10, 0
Cardinals Claim Second Straight Win over No. 19 NC State
April 06, 2024 | Baseball
Louisville turned in a 7-6 victory on Saturday.
Louisville (19-11, 5-6 ACC) clinched a series win and will go for the sweep on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
All 13 runs were scored in the first four innings on Saturday.
The Cardinals grabbed the lead with three runs in the second. Luke Napleton led the inning off with a double and later beat a throw to the plate on an Isaac Humphrey groundball for the opening run. The Wolfpack threw the ball away on a bunt two batters later to bring home Louisville's second run and Dylan Hoy drove home Logan Beard with a groundout to make it 3-0.
NC State (18-10, 8-6) responded with a single run in the third, but the Cardinals pushed two more across in the bottom half. Eddie King Jr. scored on a wild pitch after a leadoff double and Humphrey added a double of his own that scored Napleton.
The Wolfpack quickly erased the Louisville lead though, getting five runs in the fourth to take a 6-5 lead.
However, the Cardinals wouldn't be on the wrong side of the scoreboard for long as they needed just two batters to tie the game up. Michael Lippe worked a leadoff walk before moving to second on a wild pitch and Hoy followed with a double down the left field line that tied the game at six. King put the Cardinals back in front later in the fourth, singling to right to score Hoy.
From there, both pitching staffs took over and stopped the scoring.
Jared Lessman (1-1) retired nine of the 10 batters he faced in three scoreless innings before passing the ball off to Ty Starke, who pitched a scoreless eighth. Tucker Biven then locked down his second save of the season with a perfect ninth.
The trio combined to allow just two baserunners over five innings of shutout baseball.
King notched his second consecutive two-hit game to go with two hits from Gavin Kilen.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Lessman, Jared (1-1)
L: Dominic Fritton (1-3)
S: Biven, Tucker (2)
Batting:
2B: Garrett Pennington 1 ; Josh Hogue 1
RBI: Brandon Butterworth 1 ; Garrett Pennington 3 ; Josh Hogue 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Brandon Butterworth 1 ; Jacob Cozart 1 ; Eli Serrano III 1 ; Josh Hogue 1 ; Alex Sosa 1 ; Luke Nixon 1
Batting:
2B: Hoy, Dylan 1 ; King Jr., Eddie 1 ; Napleton, Luke 1 ; Humphrey, Isaac 1 ; Kilen, Gavin 1
RBI: Hoy, Dylan 2 ; King Jr., Eddie 1 ; Humphrey, Isaac 2
SH: Lippe, Michael 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Lippe, Michael 1 ; Hoy, Dylan 1 ; King Jr., Eddie 1 ; Napleton, Luke 2 ; Humphrey, Isaac 1 ; Beard, Logan 1
SB: King Jr., Eddie 1 ; Moore, Lucas 1
HBP: Napleton, Luke 1 ; Moore, Lucas 1 ; Beard, Logan 1
