Louisville Bounces Back, Shuts Out North Carolina to Even Series

Press Release from the University of Louisville:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The University of Louisville baseball team got a dominant pitching effort in a 2-0 victory over No. 9 North Carolina on Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Louisville (16-7, 3-2) recorded its first shutout of the season in the win.

North Carolina (19-4-1, 5-3) was shut out for the first time since the Cards did it in the series finale last March in Louisville.

Wyatt Danilowicz (3-1) was the story of the day on Saturday.

The southpaw hit the leadoff man with his first pitch of the day, but the next 98 pitches were dialed in. The runner in the first was stranded on third and it was the only Tar Heel baserunner to reach scoring position in the game.

Danilowicz faced the minimum in the third, fourth and sixth innings. He allowed his first hit of the day leading off the fifth but immediately struck out the next three hitters.

The Traverse City, Mich., native surrendered his second hit with one down in the seventh before buckling down for his 11th strikeout of the day and a soft lineout to finish his stellar outing.

While Danilowicz was dominating on the mound, the Louisville offense scrapped and clawed to push a pair of runs across.

Ben Slanker drew a leadoff walk to start the second and scored from first on a double off the left-centerfield wall from Bayram Hot.

In the sixth, Tague Davis opened the frame by beating out an infield single. Another walk to Slanker pushed Davis into scoring position and a groundball by Hot moved him to third. Griffin Crain then doubled Louisville’s lead with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.

Danilowicz turned the game over to Aaron England in the eighth, who gave up a single to the first batter he faced. However, he immediately erased the baserunner with a slick 5-4-3 double play started by Hot.

England worked around a two-out error to put a zero on the board in the eighth and allowed just a two-out walk in the ninth on the way to his fourth save of the year.

Danilowicz finished with a career-best 11 punchouts and just two hits allowed over a career-long 7.0-inning outing.

The Cardinals had just five hits offensively, led by two from Hot.

Louisville and North Carolina will play the rubber game of the series on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.

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