Louisville Walked-Off By Texas A&M in Super Regional Opener

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
UL	0	3	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	4	10	0
TAMU	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	1	11	2

W: Jacob Palisch (6-3), L: Michael Prosecky (2-1)

COLLEGE STATION, Tex. - Traveling down to the Lone Star State for a matchup with Texas A&M in the College Station Super Regional, the Louisville baseball program found themselves on the wrong end of a walk-off in game one of the best-of-three series, falling 5-4 Friday at Blue Bell Park.

With the bases loaded and facing two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Texas A&M's Troy Claunch poked a base hit through the right side off Louisville closer Michael Prosecky (1.1 IP, 3 K, 3 BB, 2 H, 1 ER), securing the walk-off victory.

The No. 12 nationally seeded Cardinals (42-20-1) now need to win two in a row to get back to the College World Series, with one more loss ending their season. Game two against the No. 5 Aggies (41-18) is set for Saturday, June 11 at 3:30 p.m. EST.

Louisville's pitchers played with fire far too often, while their batters squandered several opportunities. Despite only allowing five runs, the Cardinals issued 14 free passes in the form of 10 walks and four hit-by-pitches. At the plate, they went just 0-for-8 with two outs and 4-for-20 with runners on base.

Starter Jared Poland (4.2 IP, 7 K, 4 BB, 5 H, 2 ER) had a bit of a rocky outing, working through some early command issues. He allowed seven A&M batters to reach base on two-strike counts, faced two separate bases loaded jams, and his pitch count ballooned to 100 through four innings. Though he did finish strong and allowed minimal damage, giving up only a bases loaded HBP in the first and an RBI single in the third.

While Poland was battling on the mound, the Cardinals' offense gave him some early run support. After falling behind early, Louisville plated a three-spot in the second to jump in front, thanks to a two-run single from Logan Beard (1-2, 2 RBI, 2 BB) and sacrifice fly from Ben Bianco (0-3, RBI, SF). They also added an RBI double from Ben Metzinger (3-5, RBI, 2B) in the fifth.

Playing with fire finally burned Louisville in the later innings. Tate Kuehner (1.2 IP, 3 K, 1 BB, 4 H, 2 ER) was able to pitch out of an emotion-filled bases loaded jam in the sixth, but the reliever surrendered a game-tying two-run homer in the next inning. Three relievers - Carson Liggitt (0.0 IP, 1 BB), Garrett Schmeltz (0.1 IP) and Alex Galvan (0.2 IP, 2 K, 2 BB) - were needed to finish the seventh.

During this time, Louisville had a pair of golden opportunities to pull away. They had two runners on with no outs in the sixth, two more with one out in the eighth, and came away with no runs in both instances.

Even Prosecky buckled a bit before breaking in the ninth. He worked himself into a bases loaded jam not long after being inserted in the eighth, but was able to work out of it. By the end of the game, A&M had stranded 17 total base runners.

(Photo of Cam Masterman: Jared Anderson - State of Louisville)

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