LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Find the joy in the journey, not the destination.
That is a prime message that coach Dan McDonnell has instilled in his University of Louisville baseball team.
Saturday and now Sunday will be a legitimate test of that philosophy for the Cardinals. They coughed up an early 4-1 lead, tied the game at 5 on Eddie King Jr.’s second home run and then stumbled through the final three innings of a jarring 9-6 loss to Miami Saturday at Jim Patterson Stadium.
"They had double-digit hits and almost double-digit runs," McDonnell said. "We knew we had a good opponent and they earned it ... you're sitting in the crazy chair if you think it's going to be easy."
The next stop on the Cards’ uneven journey will be Sunday at noon, with U of L as the home team. Beat the Hurricanes and Louisville (39-22) will advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, next weekend for the sixth time in program history. Lose and this season will be over.
McDonnell said Louisville would start freshman Ethan Eberle, a left-hander. Eberle has won 6 of 8 decisions with an earned run average of 4.42 and 50 strikeouts in 53 innings. Miami coach J.T. Arteaga said he would likely start a right-handed pitcher. But in an elimination game, expect every pitcher for both teams to be available.
"Every time we're in a win or go home situation, my team loosens up a little bit and we go out and have fun," Arteaga said. "There's no quit in this team ... it's going to be all hands on deck."
After a dominant and clean performance while winning the series opener Friday afternoon, the Cards contributed to their struggles Saturday.
A silly base-running play by Kamau Neighbors resulted in a pick-off at second base with the bases loaded in the fourth. Where was he going? Third base was occupied. Miami noticed Neighbors was dancing too far off the base and called for the pickoff throw. It worked.
An error by shortstop Alex Alicea put Miami’s lead off man on base in the bottom of the fourth.
A questionable umpire’s call at first base negated Miami’s third out, also in the fourth. Cards’ first baseman Tague Davis made certain to keep his feet in fair territory while fielding a ground ball by Miami’s Michael Torres 15 feet in front of the bag.
First base umpire David Uyl ruled that Davis’ glove was in foul territory when he grabbed the baseball. Instead of the Cards closing out the inning, Torres drove a single to center to put Miami runners on first and second. McDonnell said he had too much respect for the umpires to question the call and that one play never decides a baseball game.
That led to this: A get-me-over fastball from a tiring starting pitcher Tucker Biven that resulted in a three-run Miami home run by Jake Ogden that drained nearly every drop of energy from the home crowd of 6,066.
Add it up and the Hurricanes scored four runs in the fourth inning to wipe away that 4-1 U of L lead.
"There's a million calls in a game with balls and strikes and I know they're good conversation pieces, but there's no way in heck I'm going to blame a really good umpire," McDonnell said.
"I'm very confident my team is not living in the self-pity world as to why we lost the game. Plus, that's disrespectful to Miami and how well they played. Nothing was gifted to them today. They earned it."
The Cards tied the game on King’s second home run in the seventh. But the Hurricanes responded quickly and decisively with a run in the bottom of the seventh and three more on a home run by third baseman Daniel Cuvet in the eighth off U of L left-handed reliever Ty Starke.
I asked McDonnell if he considered replacing Starke with a right-handed pitcher to face Miami's best right-handed hitter. He said he did not because Starke has a "funky" delivery that is tough on all hitters.
"That's the great thing about baseball," McDonnell said. "I kind of laugh or I don't know the right word or smile inside, but 'You're too late, McDonnell,' is an often phrase I hear when I'm walking to the mound."
Louisville managed one run in the ninth and had two runners on without nobody out. But Miami closer Brian Walters retired Zion Rose, King and Garret Pike on a fly out, ground out and fly out to end the threat and force Game Three on Sunday.
"We have one more game to play in this beautiful stadium, with these beautiful fans in the packed out stadium," King said. "So I have confidence that we'll bounce back.
"As coach always says, we get knocked down but we get back up. So I have 100% faith we're going to come back and win tomorrow."
"This is the best weekend in college baseball," McDonnell said. "You get to play in front of 6,000 people in Jim Patterson Stadium. So my message is: 'Enjoy this, man.' "
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