Eddie King Jr. Launches Five Homers in Louisville's Sweep Over Notre Dame

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Heading into their final series of the regular season against Notre Dame, the Louisville baseball program was in dire need of a great showing. The Cardinals had just gotten thumped in a series at North Carolina the weekend before, and needed to add some conference wins to boost their NCAA Tournament resume before heading to the ACC Baseball Championship.

It wound up being a mission accomplished for Louisville, pulling off a convincing three-game sweep over the Fighting Irish, and out-scoring them 24-10 in the process. While it was a series where the hitting, pitching and defense were all on the same page, there was one unquestioned series MVP that set the tone all weekend long: Eddie King Jr.

The junior center fielder for the Cardinals not only had himself the best weekend of his collegiate career, but one of the best power hitting weekends by a Louisville players in years. Over the course of the two-day/three-game set with Notre Dame, King blasted an absurd five home runs, going 6-of-10 and driving in eight runs in the process.

"I'm just trying to stay simple, just trying to be locked in and put up runs for my team," King said after the series and regular season finale. "Just trying to catch the barrel, and just let it take off for me."

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound outfielder came out swinging right out of the gates. In the series-opening Thursday doubleheader, King went 3-for-4 with two home runs for three RBI in game one, then followed that up by going 1-for-3 with a two-run homer. The next day in the Friday finale, he had another multi-homer game, going 2-for-3 with two long balls and three more RBI.

Given King's season up to this point, a performance like that wasn't completely unheard of. He is one of Louisville's best hitters on the team, and entered the series batting .302 with nine home runs and 35 RBI.

King, a right-handed hitter, said he made a cognizant effort to not push the ball to the opposite field as much, but his power outburst wasn't a byproduct of a massive change to his mechanics or approach.

"The most I thought about was maybe not trying to hit everything to the right field," he said. "I obviously can pull the ball a little bit here and there, but that's about it."

Afterwards, head coach Dan McDonnell compared King's weekend to some of the best players who have ever come through the program, and some of the late hot hitting they had. It reminded him of both Chris Dominguez in Louisville's 2007 run to the College World Series, as well as Drew Ellis in the 2017 Super Regional against Kentucky.

"You need guys like that. You need guys to step up, and he doesn't have to be the only one," McDonnell said. "We got plenty of good hitters, that maybe someone else is super hot in the ACC Tournament."

King also had a change to show off his defense against Notre Dame. A rangy center fielder who has already once appeared on the SportCenter Top 10 this season, he made a great relay throw to second baseman Alex Alicea in the finale to help gun down a runner at home.

"Coach, he really emphasizes shutting down on defense," King said. "That's a big part of our game. We practice defense a lot, we even have a practice dedicated to the defense. It's just like having that mindset that defense wins games. That's the mindset we have to have."

Sitting at 32-22 overall and 16-14 in ACC play, Louisville will need some wins in the ACC Baseball Championship if they are to build a case for their at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. King believes the momentum that he has, as well as the team as a whole, will bode well against whomever the Cardinals will have to face.

"We definitely feel confident as a team," he said. "The offense, the hitters we all feel really good right now, so that's huge for us. Then the pitchers seemed like they're getting it all (together). What they need to do, it seems like they're just shoving it in the zone. That's all we can ask for."

Louisville will learn their draw in the ACC Baseball Championship on Saturday evening, with the schedule getting released on Sunday.

(Photo of Eddie King Jr.: Jared Anderson - Louisville Report)

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