Louisville Blanked by Wake Forest to Clinch Series Loss

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
WF	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	3	8	2
UL	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0

W: Rhett Lowder (7-0), L: Riley Phillips (4-1)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hoping to rebound from their series-opening loss to Wake Forest the night before, the Louisville baseball program was unable to get the bats going in game two of the top-ten series, falling 3-0 Saturday at Jim Patterson Stadium to clinch a series loss.

The No. 8 Cardinals (25-9, 7-7 ACC) suffer their first home series loss in ACC play since getting swept by Miami to end the 2021 regular season, as well as their second shutout loss in the past seven conference games. Conversely, the No. 2 Demon Deacons (31-4, 14-2 ACC) have now won 10 consecutive games in league play, as well as all six of their ACC series.

Wake Forest starting pitcher and D1Baseball midseason All-American Rhett Lowder carved up Louisville batters all afternoon. The Cardinals went down in order in three of Lowder's seven innings pitched, had nearly twice as many strikeouts (nine) as they did hits (five), and didn't draw a single walk during his start.

For the game, Louisville collectively struck out 12 times, tying for their most all season, with no one getting on base multiple times. Christian Knapczyk (1-4, 2B) delivered the lone extra base hit in the game for the Cardinals: a double in the third inning.

Riley Phillips (4.1 IP, 3 K, 3 BB, 6 H, 3 ER) made his first pitching start for Louisville since February, replacing Greg Farone in the weekend rotation, and looked solid early in the matchup. He twirled a pair of scoreless frames right out of the gate, but Wake Forest eventually caught up to him, allowing leadoff home runs in both the third and fourth innings.

He would get pulled in the fifth in favor of reliever Kayden Campbell (0.2 IP) after working himself into a two-runner jam. Two straight two-out hit-by-pitches from Campbell would then bring in another runner for the Deacs in the frame

Farone (3.2 IP, 1 K, 1 BB, 2 H) and Kaleb Corbett (0.1 IP) followed up Campbell with four innings of scoreless relief, giving the Louisville batters a chance once Lowder's day was finally done after seven innings. However, the Cardinals were only able to generate one baserunner after Lowder's departure.

Next up for Louisville, they'll try and avoid getting swept by Wake Forest in the game three. First pitch is slated for Sunday, Apr. 16 at 1:00 p.m. EST, and will be televised on ACC Network Extra and broadcast on 93.9 The Ville.

(Photo of Carson Liggett: Jared Anderson - Louisville Report)

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