LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Coastal Carolina is the next pothole parked in front of coach Dan McDonnell’s University of Louisville baseball team in the College World Series.
After winning elimination games against Arizona Sunday and Oregon State Tuesday, the Cardinals will gather again at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska Tuesday at 2 p.m. (EDT) for another win-or-else game against Coastal Carolina.
Good.
“You’re going to have to grind this out and earn it,” McDonnell said.
Coastal Carolina has won 25 straight.
Fantastic.
Sixteen of those Coastal wins have been by at least four runs.
Terrific.
Coastal is the last unbeaten team in NCAA Tournament play.
Outstanding.
The Chanticleers have won more games (55) than any team in America and are ranked No. 2 in one computer poll, 24 spots ahead of the Cards.
Perfect.
The greater the adversity, the greater the performance by McDonnell’s undaunted squad.
“We talk about the hard,” McDonnell said. “This group has been through a lot of hard.”
After spitting out a 6-3 lead in the top of the ninth Tuesday against Oregon State, the Cardinals wiggled away from a bases loaded, no outs situation without allowing the Beavers to grab the lead.
Then, in the bottom of the inning, Louisville scored the winning run without managing a base hit.
Walk. Catcher’s interference. Error. Strikeout. Sacrifice fly by Eddie King Jr., who was instantly mobbed and doused with water in the middle of the field.
“I think we knew we were about to do something special,” King said. “So I'm glad I could just come through for my team. Just gotta keep it going.”
Keep it going against the odds is correct analysis. Louisville arrived in Omaha as the seventh pick to win the tournament, ahead of only Murray State. Now the Cards are in the Final Four -- with Coastal, Louisiana State and Arkansas.
See you Wednesday. Minutes after King’s lifted that fly ball deep enough into center field that OSU center fielder Canon Reeder had a 0.00000001% chance of throwing out Alex Alicea, DraftKings installed Coastal as a 2.5-run favorite against the Cards.
Don’t forget this: Louisville must beat Coastal Wednesday and again on Thursday to advance to the final three-game series.
Big Deal.
This Louisville team has specialized in adversity. The Cards entered the NCAA Tournament by losing six of seven games.
They started their journey in the Nashville Regional where every outsider who follows college baseball projected Southeastern Conference heavyweight, top-ranked Vanderbilt to win. No contest.
Four teams that advanced to Omaha did it by sweeping their Super Regional. LSU, Arkansas and Coastal swept their Super Regionals. Louisville was not one of those teams, needing three games to put down Miami.
Then the Cards came to Omaha and began their visit with a moment they needed to forget — getting walked-off by Oregon State, 4-3, on Friday night.
Losing Game One is precisely the worst path to take to Omaha. Louisville did not get that memo. The Cards scored six runs in the eighth inning to beat Arizona Sunday and then had their fans burying their eyes in their hands Tuesday afternoon.
This is why: McDonnell summoned Wyatt Danilowicz, one of his top left-handed relievers to get three outs with Louisville ahead 6-3 in the ninth.
Danilowicz was not at his best. Aiva Arquette hit a first-pitch fastball into the left field seats. Gavin Turley blooped a single to right. Danilowicz threw a ball high and another ball outside before McDonnell went to the mound to signal for Biven.
Remember, please, that Biven pitched the final four innings Sunday, throwing 53 pitches. He looked like a guy who threw all those pitches by starting his relief stint with two more balls to load the bases. Maybe Biven did not have it.
“I never had a doubt,” McDonnell said. “This guy (Biven) to my left is an absolute warrior. It’s so much fun giving him the ball.
“Even though he hasn’t always won, he knows that win or lose, we’ll trust him. And we’ll go down with him any day of the week.”
Then Biven found his magic, inducing what appeared to be a double-play ground ball. But Alicea’s view was slightly blocked by the baserunner and the ball rolled past him into the outfield.
Two runs scored. Tie game. And Oregon State had the go-ahead run on third as well as another baserunner on first.
Those runners never moved an inch. Strikeout. Strikeout. Pop out.
Biven got the game to the bottom of the ninth — and his teammates took it from there.
After the game, McDonnell awarded the player of the game shirt to Alicea, who walked on a 3-2 count to become the winning run. Maybe part of his reasoning was to lift the spirits of his shortstop, who made a critical error on Friday as well as the misplay on Tuesday.
But Alicea had a better idea. He handed the shirt to Biven, for throwing 21 demanding pitches against the Beavers two days after throwing 53 against Arizona.
“Obviously Alex he's by far the best defensive shortstop in the country,” Biven said. “It would be selfish for me to get mad at him in this situation. He's done plenty for this team playing with a hurt hand. Kudos to him.”
Odds are that Biven will volunteer to throw another 21 or 53 against Coastal Carolina if that is what is required for the Cards to advance.
"When you talk about toughness, yeah, we'll have a good match-up of two tough teams and grinding it out,” McDonnell said. “But we're looking forward to that opportunity.”
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