The No. 7 national seed Louisville Cardinals opened their home NCAA tournament regional with an 11-2 victory over Saint Louis in Louisville, Ky., Friday night.
Louisville advances to face Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon, while the Billikens take on Illinois State in an elimination game. The Commodores beat the Redbirds 8-7 in 13 innings Friday.
The Cardinals went on
top for good with a three-run fourth inning. Trailing 2-1, Josh Richmond hit a sacrifice fly to score Phil Wunderlich, who was hit by a pitch. Zak Wasserman’s double to right plated Stewart Ijames, who had singled, and Jeff Arnold singled with two down to score Drew Haynes, who had doubled, for a 4-2 edge.From there, Louisville (49-12) began to pile on. Ijames’ sac fly scored Adam Duvall, who was hit by a pitch, and Richmond doubled home Ryan Wright, who had reached on an infield single, for two more runs in the fifth.
Two innings later, the Cardinals’ Andrew Clark led off with a single ahead of Wright, who homered to left-center. Ijames then doubled to right-center, stole third base and came home on Saint Louis reliever Jim Foster’s balk.
Louisville mercifully scored just two more runs in the eighth. Clark hit a one-out, two-run dinger to right, plating Arnold, who had walked. The homer closed the scorebook at 11-2.
The Cardinals scored first in the third inning. Wasserman singled and scored on Clark’s sac fly.
The Atlantic-10 champion Billikens (33-28) answered for their only lead in the next frame. Danny Brock and Jon Myers led off with back-to-back jacks to go up 2-1.
Clark led the Louisville offensive attack, going 3-for-4 with three RBI. Wasserman went 2-for-3, Arnold and Ijames were each 2-for-4 and Wright was 2-for-5.
Reliever Tony Zych (5-2) was the pitcher of record for the Cardinals, working 3 1-3 innings of scoreless ball, allowing three hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Derek Self started and lasted just four-plus innings.
J.D. Dunn went 3-for-4 for Saint Louis at the dish. Bryant Cotton (9-5) took the loss, allowing eight runs on 12 hits over six innings, with one walk and four punchouts.
NOTES: Cardinals coach Dan McDonnell was not present and is serving a three-game suspension after using foul language and making physical contact with umpires during a loss to St. John’s in the Big East tournament. Hitting coach Chris Lemonis and pitching coach Roger Williams will lead the team during McDonnell’s absence. … With Brock’s fourth-inning home run, he tied Jason Wood for the single-season Saint Louis runs record with 64. Wood accomplished the feat in 1999. … Louisville secured a national top-eight seed for the first time. … The Cardinals have won nine of their last 11 games, while the Billikens’ seven-game winning streak was snapped. … Louisville leads the all-time series between the former Conference USA mates, 31-17.
BOX SCORE
Photo above: Louisville's Drew Haynes slides safely into second base for a double under Saint Louis' Michael Levine's tag. (John Sommers II/Louisville Courier-Journal)
Video credit – CBSsports.com; Audio credit – KOOL-AM, Clarksville, Ind.
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