Louisville Motivated to Return to Omaha in 2026

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - We might be deep into college basketball season, but the return of college baseball is just on the horizon. The 2026 season will officially get underway next Friday, and with it, the quest to get to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska will begin.

Under head coach Dan McDonnell, Louisville has been a program that is almost synonymous with Omaha. The Cardinals have made six trips to the CWS since McDonnell arrived in 2007, including an appearance last season that ended with them finishing among the last four teams alive.

As the Cards gear up for year 20 under Coach Mac, the returning players from last year's team are not only eager to taste that success again, but to try and complete the journey and secure the program's first national championship.

"It was pretty awesome getting back there," left-handed pitcher Ethan Eberle said during Louisville's annual media day on Friday. "We know what it's like to be there, but we want to know what it's like to win the whole thing. Making it the Final Four, being so close, it really internally motivates all of us who sit in this room every single day to go back out there and try to win it all."

Eberle is one of multiple returning players from last season's squad, and given who is running it back, it's hard to argue Louisville's chances of making back-to-back Omaha appearances. Not only are their corps of position players headlined by preseason All-Americans Zion Rose, Lucas Moore and Tague Davis, a whopping 62.7 percent of their innings pitched in 2025 were pitched by those who return for 2026. There's a reason why the Cards have been a consistent top-15 squad this preseason.

But not only do the bulk of Louisville's players know the work it takes to get to Omaha, a handful of them also know the feeling of what it's like to not even make the postseason at all.

Prior to last season, Louisville endured a four-year stretch where they made the NCAA Tournament just one time. Juniors and senior who have spent their entire career with the Cardinals have seen the program both get close to the mountaintop, as well as tumble into the valley.

As McDonnell puts it, this group of upperclassmen for UofL knows the fine line between tasting sweet postseason success, and not even being in the conversation for the Big Dance.

"When you look at ... all these guys that were here a few years ago when we didn't make it, and we didn't have a great run or an opportunity to play in the postseason, to last year being in Omaha," he said. "They're smart enough to know the fine line between winning and losing. Hopefully they're well in tune that, just because you put this uniform on, and we were in Omaha last year, that there's a long road to get to Omaha.

"I just like the experience that we have of guys that have been on both sides of that, and should know the difference in what it takes. That fine line. What it takes to win those close games, to handle the adversity, to handle the length of a long season, not get too high, not get too low, and so we'll go from there."

Baseball can be a wholly unforgiving game that can test you at every step of the way. In those 56 regular season games, you're bound to experience slumps, hot streaks and everything in between. Fortunately, the players know that baseball is marathon and not a sprint, and are dedicated to the everyday process that winning requires - both for themselves and the player next to them.

"I don't like to go off of motivators. I like to stay in regiment, routines and things like that," outfielder Zion Rose said. "But that feeling of doing the C-A-R-D-S chant with the crowd at the end of the Super Regional, or just the adrenaline before game one of Omaha, those are definitely two things that, for me personally, were something that's driving me this year. Just to get back to that feeling, not only for myself, but for the guys who weren't able to experience that. I think everyone on this team should be able to experience that.

The first pitch of the 2026 season is set for Friday, Feb. 13 at 3:00 p.m. EST, when Louisville hosts Michigan State at Jim Patterson Stadium for a weekend series.

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