7th Inning Stretch: Dealing With Early Adversity (Week 4)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Following a dominating first week of an 18-game home stand, the Louisville baseball program ran into a little more adversity this past week.

The Cardinals (8-2) were able to outlast Butler just long enough to secure a win in their first midweek game of the year, then followed that up with a series win over St. John's - although it wasn't a clean sweep.

Despite putting up 15 runs against Butler, Louisville still barely won after the pitching staff gave up 11 earned runs. Game one against St. John's saw their defense fall apart in the second inning, allowing the Red Storm to take a six-run lead in the second before the Cardinals came back and walked them off. In game two, the bullpen gave up 10 runs in four innings to hand them a loss, although Louisville was able to bounce back with an all-around good game in the finale.

On one hand, baseball is a game where any one can beat any team at any time, as evidenced by all over the sport this past week. No. 1 Texas A&M went 1-3, No. 17 Duke lost a pair of midweeks against . 500 teams, and No. 23 Cincinnati has dropped five of their last seven - and those are just a couple examples.

That being said, it will be important for Louisville to make sure some of the issues that came up this week don't become bigger problems. Especially considering pitching and defense has been the biggest contributor to the Cardinals missing three of the last four NCAA Tournaments. With Morehead State and Illinois-Chicago coming to town, Louisville has a good opportunity to continue working out the kinks before ACC play gets here.

News & Notes

Louisville remains unranked in of all of the five major collegiate baseball polls.
Right-Handed Pitcher Patrick Forbes ranks No. 6 nationally in strikeouts with 30, No. 9 in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 30.0, and No. 20 in walks allowed per nine innings at 0.60.
Infielder Jake Munroe ranks No. 17 nationally in batting average at .487.

The Week Ahead

Home (Jim Patterson Stadium - Louisville, Ky.)

Tuesday, Mar. 4 at 3:00 p.m. EST vs. Morehead State (ACCNX/970 WGTK)
Friday, Mar. 7 at 12:00 p.m. EST vs UIC (ACCNX/970 WGTK)
Saturday, Mar. 8 at 1:00 p.m. EST vs UIC (ACCNX/970 WGTK)
Sunday, Mar. 9 at 1:00 p.m. EST vs UIC (ACCNX/970 WGTK)

Know The Foe

Morehead State Eagles

Head Coach (school record): Chris Rose (43-28)
2025 Record (conference record): 6-4 (0-0)
All-Time Series Record: Louisville Leads 53-36

Top Performers (Hitters):

C Hunter Thomas (10 GP, 10 GS): .341/.438/.829, 6 HR, 22 RBI, 2 2B, 6 BB,
INF Hayden Robbins (10 GP, 10 GS): .357/.471/.405, 3 RBI, 1 3B, 2 BB, 1 SB
INF Andy Cisneros (10 GP, 10 GS): .333/.429/.361, 8 RBI, 1 2B, 4 BB, 1 SB

Top Performers (Pitchers):

LHP Kamden Hawks (3 APP, 3 GS): 1.59 ERA, 1.85 WHIP, 11.1 IP, 9 K, 14 BB, .189 B/AVG
RHP Trevor Callahan (4 APP, 0 GS): 5.73 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 11.0 IP, 10 K, 5 BB, .237 B/AVG
RHP Will Grimmett (5 APP, 0 GS): 4.22 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 10.2 IP, 4 K, 1 BB, .311 B/AVG

UIC Flames

Head Coach (school record): Sean McDermott (87-80)
2025 Record (conference record): 2-10 (0-0)
All-Time Series Record: Louisville Leads 1-0

Top Performers (Hitters):

C Jackson Bessette (11 GP, 11 GS): .306/.479/.528, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 1 3B, 10 BB
C/OF Jack Snyder (11 GP, 10 GS): .294/.385/.529, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 2 2B, 5 BB
OF Luke Nowak (11 GP, 11 GS): .318/.380/.432, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 2 2B, 4 BB, 1 SB

Top Performers (Pitchers):

RHP Dillon Schueler (3 APP, 3 GS): 7.62 ERA, 2.08 WHIP, 13.0 IP, 11 K, 7 BB, .323 B/AVG
LHP Colin Hawkins (7 APP, 0 GS): 3.24 ERA, 0.60 WHIP, 8.1 IP, 10 K, 3 BB, .074 B/AVG
RHP Tommy Egan (2 APP, 1 GS): 3.00 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 6.0 IP, 4 K, 3 BB, .250 B/AVG

Statistical Breakdown

Rankings and Records:

	MSU	UIC	UofL
D1Baseball Ranking	NR	NR	NR
RPI	89th	141st	195th
SOS	92nd	22nd	272nd
Home Record	4-2	0-0	6-1
Away Record	2-2	1-10	0-0
Neutral Record	0-0	0-0	2-1

Hitting:

	MSU	UIC	UofL
Base on Balls	100th (57)	123rd (53)	215th (41)
Batting Avg.	167th (.263)	172nd (.261)	6th (.347)
Home Runs	67th (13)	135th (9)	95th (11)
OBP	119th (.392)	185th (.367)	46th (.431)
Runs/Game	101st (7.3)	209th (5.3)	47th (8.7)
SLG	165th (.409)	187th (.389)	28th (.535)

Pitching:

	MSU	UIC	UofL
ERA	174th (6.49)	269th (9.58)	104th (4.97)
Hits/9 Innings	166th (9.94)	259th (12.10)	130th (9.21)
K/9 Innings	273rd (6.6)	275th (6.6)	22nd (11.2)
K/BB Ratio	269th (1.00)	248th (1.17)	32nd (3.00)
WHIP	214th (1.84)	247th (1.97)	99th (1.44)
BB/9 Innings	251st (6.59)	205th (5.61)	48th (3.72)

(Photo via Chris Jones - Imagn Images)

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