Louisville Rebounds, Run-Rules Cincinnati in Midweek Showdown

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
UL	1	5	3	0	4	1	0	14	12	0
UC	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	5	1

W: Riley Phillips (3-0), L: T. Boba (1-1)

CINCINNATI - Taking on Cincinnati for their first road midweek matchup of the season, the Louisville baseball program was able to rebound from their series loss at Notre Dame this past weekend, run-ruling their rival to the tune of 14-1 Tuesday at UC Baseball Stadium.

The No. 11 Cardinals (20-4, 3-3 ACC) clinch a victory in what was game No. 1000 for head coach Dan McDonnell. In 17 years at the helm, McDonnell sports a 708-291 overall record for the second-most wins of any Division I program since he was hired ahead of the 2007 season.

Coming off of a weekend series in which they plated only nine runs in three games, Louisville's offense exploded against the Bearcats. They tied for their second-most runs plated in a single this season, and hit four home runs for the first time since doing so last season also against Cincinnati on Apr. 12.

Two of the homers came from Jack Payton (2-2, 2 HR, 5 RBI, BB, HBP), who logged his first multi-homer game and tied a career-high in RBI. Eddie King Jr. (2-4, HR, 3 RBI) and Matt Klein (3-4, HR, 2 RBI) launched the other two, with the latter tallying his first multi-hit game and first home run of his collegiate career.

Louisville scored early and often against Cincinnati, plating nine unanswered runs in the first three innings of the contest. Payton got the scoring started in the first inning with a solo homer, then the Cardinals opened the floodgates with a five-run second and three-run third.

In the second, Klein and Christian Knapczyk (1-2, RBI, BB) collected RBI singles while Payton unleashed a three-run home run. Immediately following that, King drove in all three runs in the third, launching a three-run blast of his own.

After Cincinnati got a run back in the fourth, Louisville got right back to work at the plate. An RBI single from Ryan McCoy (1-4, 2 RBI) and a pair of base loaded hit-by-pitches to Payton and Brandon Anderson (2-4, RBI) gave the Cardinals four runs in the fifth, then Klein capped off the scoring with a solo blast in the sixth.

On top of the offense, Louisville also got strong pitching out of both their starter and the bullpen. Kade Grundy (3.2 IP, 1 K, 5 BB, 3 H, 1 ER) tossed three scoreless to begin the game, only surrendering a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning.

Riley Phillips (2.1 IP, 6 K, 1 H) was the first pitcher out of the bullpen after Cincinnati created a bases loaded situation in the frame, but was able to get the final out of the fourth. He plus Kayden Campbell (0.2 IP, 1 K) and Ben Wiegman (0.1 IP, 1 K, 1 H) kept UC off the scoreboard for the rest of the game.

Next up for Louisville, they'll stay on the road and head to Raleigh, N.C for a weekend series against NC State. First pitch of game one is slated for Friday, Mar. 31 at 6:00 p.m. EST, and will be televised on ACC Network Extra and broadcast on 93.9 The Ville

(Photo via Jared Anderson - Louisville Report)

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