LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – It was there for them. A 4-1 lead. Bases loaded, two out, power hitter coming to the plate. A home crowd ready to lift them to Omaha. Then came the mistakes — the kind Louisville had kicked for much of this NCAA postseason. And just like that, the Super Regional was tied.
The Cardinals will get another chance when they face Miami in the rubber match of the NCAA Super Regional in Jim Patterson Stadium at noon Sunday. But Saturday’s 9-6 loss could’ve gone much differently. The team will need to flush it fast. The rest of us aren’t under that obligation.
A baserunning blunder. A defensive lapse. If you leave the door open to misfortune, it usually walks in, at some point.
The warning signs were there from the start for Louisville. On Miami’s first hit of the game, Jake Ogden doubled, and as the throw came in to second base, no one was covering. The next batter flew out to left field and Ogden, staying aggressive, tagged and sprinted to third. The casual throw into the infield was nowhere close to the bag and Louisville had no play. Then came a pop-up to the infield. Neighbors and Davis bumped into each other. Davis held on.
Louisville first baseman Teague Davis and second baseman Kamau Neighbors make contact fielding a pop up in the first inning of an NCAA Super Regional game against Miami in Jim Patterson Stadium.
No harm done — but another crack in the foundation.
The Turn
When Louisville loaded the bases in the fourth inning with a 4-1 lead and two out, none of that seemed to matter. The stadium was electric. One of Louisville’s most dangerous postseason hitters, Zion Rose, was coming to the plate. As Miami huddled on the mound for a pitching change, Louisville players danced in the dugout.
Cardinals coach Dan McDonnell called in his baserunners for a quick chat. I’d be willing to bet that one of the messages was stay alert.
On the mound, Miami coach J.D. Arteaga and his players were having a different discussion. Ogden, the shortstop, wanted to run a pickoff play at second base. He’d been watching Neighbors at second during the prior at-bat. He thought they could catch him sleeping.
“He wanted to do it,” Arteaga said, pointing at Ogden. “So when we made the pitching change, we went ahead and put it in.”
Did you notice he was getting too far off the base? Ogden was asked.
“Yeah,” he said, smiling.
Before ever throwing a pitch to Rose, reliver Rob Evans spun deliberately. The video replay shows Neighbors almost out of the TV picture. He was still frozen when Evans drew back, and only as his arm began to move forward did Neighbors start to scramble back to the bag. He never made it, and was thrown out at third.
And the air went out of the stadium.
Louisville huddles at the mound during the fourth inning of an NCAA Super Regional game against Miami in Jim Patterson Stadium.
“It's a game of momentum,” McDonnell said afterward. “So, you know, you’ve just got to handle it. It's going to swing back and forth.”
It swung, all right.
Miami’s first batter in the bottom of the fourth reached on a fielding error, went to second on a sacrifice bunt, and, after a fly out, scored on a Jake Kulikowski single up the middle. An unearned run. Then Michael Torres appeared to ground out to first. Davis fielded it with his toes nearly brushing the foul line. He gathered the ball after it bounced on the green turf and spun toward foul territory. He was two steps into his run to tag the bag when first base umpire David Uyl raised his hands, signaling a foul ball.
Teague pleaded his case. McDonnell emerged from the dugout to confer with home plate umpire Billy Van Rapphorst. The play was not reviewable. Later, ESPN had a rules analyst on to explain the umpiring communication in that situation, saying that the two would make eye contact before the one with the better view would make the call.
Was the ball foul? We’ll never really know. If Davis’ toes were right up against the line, his glove, almost by definition, would’ve had to extend from his body a bit to make the play, and could well have been across that line.
“I don't have a good angle from the dugout,” McDonnell said. “I just asked the home plate up if he could help. Look guys, 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. You know, make the next pitch. Make the next play. Get the next at-bat. That's part of life. I'm very confident that my team is not living in that self-pity world as to why we lost the game. Plus, that's disrespectful, I think, to Miami and how well they played. Nothing was gifted to them. They earned it today.”
Either way, that door being left over for misfortune? Being picked off of second. The error to start the inning. Louisville should’ve been back in the dugout, potentially with a bigger lead. Instead, Torres singled. And after a Louisville meeting at the mound, Ogden homered to left, and Miami led 5-4.
One disastrous inning. Four unearned runs. Momentum lost. Louisville would fight back to even in the top of the seventh. Miami scored again in the bottom of the inning. Then added three runs in the eight when Daniel Cuvet took Ty Starke deep after McDonnell decided to stick with his pitcher rather than go to a right-hander. He’d already used one righty, Jack Brown. He still had Jake Schwitzer or Peter Michael — more of a starter — available.
"I believe"
“’You’re too late McDonnell’ is a phrase you hear often walking to the mound,” McDonnell said. “And you know, if I knew he was going to give up a hit, I promise you, we’d have taken him out. You’ve just got to play the game and trust your guys. But man, they (Miami) earned it.”
People say baseball is slow. They’re not watching. This game can flip in a blink. One minute, you’re feeling it. The next, you’re facing elimination.
The Cardinals weren’t promised an easy road. McDonnell reminded them of that again Saturday night, evoking a preseason lesson from noted speaker Dr. Kevin Elko:
“Don’t sit in the crazy chair,” McDonnell said. “The crazy chair is thinking this will be easy. If you live there, you’re not going to be real successful.”
He paused.
“I believe in these guys. I trust these guys. Man, I’m so ready to play.”
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