Louisville Receives No. 11 Seed in 2026 ACC Baseball Championship

The Cardinals head down to Charlotte needing to win the conference in order to make the NCAA Tournament.

Louisville baseball outfielder Lucas Moore | Jared Anderson - Louisville Cardinals On SI

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Following a regular season in which they went 13-17 in conference play, as well as 30-26 overall, the Louisville baseball program has received the No. 11 seed for the 2026 ACC Baseball Championship, the league announced Saturday.

The Cardinals will open postseason play against 14th-seeded Pitt, with first pitch set for Tuesday, May 19 at 9:00 p.m. EST. The winner will go on to face No. 6 Wake Forest in the second round, then the the winner of that matchup will take on third-seeded Florida State in the quarterfinals.

For the second year in a row, the ACC Baseball Championship will be a straight single-elimination tournament with byes. The first round will take place on Tuesday, May 19, followed by the second round on Wednesday, May 20. The quarterfinals are set for Thursday, May 21 and Friday, May 22, with the semifinals on Saturday, May 23, followed by the Championship on Sunday, May 24.

For Louisville, the path to the NCAA Tournament is simple: win the ACC Tournament. Not only is their win/loss record not good enough, they head down to Charlotte sporting an RPI of just 84th, which is also way too low to be considered for an at-large bid.

The Cardinals were one of the most prolific hitting teams in all of college baseball during the regular season, hitting .310 as a team and averaging 8.6 runs per game. At the plate, they've been anchored by first baseman and Golden Spikes Award candidate Tague Davis, who had 34 home runs and 96 RBI - both of which lead the nation and are Louisville single-season records.

However, UofL has also been hamstrung by a pitching staff that was been one of the worst at the power conference level. They sport a team ERA of just 6.65, which entered the weekend ranked at 224th in all of Division I. Of their 13 pitchers with double digit innings pitched, only two have an ERA under 5.00.

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(Photo of Lucas Moore: Jared Anderson - Louisville Cardinals On SI)