LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Let’s just say Louisville baseball has a flair for the dramatic.
The Cardinals looked like a machine for most of their 7-6 College World Series elimination victory against Oregon State on Tuesday. They led from the start. They hit for power, patched together pitching, and had an answer for every Beaver punch.
Then came the ninth inning.
Louisville’s 6-3 lead vanished in a blur of tension and turf. Aiva Arquette launched a leadoff homer. A sharp grounder — what looked like a tailor-made double-play ball — skidded under the glove of one of the Cardinals’ steadiest defenders, Alex Alicea. Two runs scored to tie the game at 6.
But Louisville didn’t fold. Tucker Biven regrouped to strike out two batters and coax a pop-up, stranding the go-ahead run and giving the Cardinals a chance to respond.
They didn’t waste it.
Alicea drew a leadoff walk. Lucas Moore reached on catcher’s interference. Matt Klein dropped down a bunt, and Oregon State misplayed it.
Bases loaded. No outs. Jake Munroe struck out looking.
Then came Eddie King Jr.
The senior slugger lifted a fly ball to center, deep enough for Alicea -- who put his fielding miscue behind him quickly -- to tag and score the game-winner, as Louisville walked off a victory to stay alive in Omaha.
Louisville's Jake Monroe circles the bases after a third-inning home run in the Cardinals' College World Series elimination game against Oregon State.
It was a businesslike performance turned chaotic thriller — and a stirring reminder that these Cardinals can win in more ways than one.
"I just loved the way we handled the hard," Louisville coach Dan McDonnell told Sean Moth in his postgame radio interview. "'... I've been telling this group we've been through the hard, so we're ready for this. So, when it got hard there -- obviously it got hard in the ninth man -- you know, Biven strikes out those two guys, and we get off the field. I just kept trying to tell them, 'Guys, even if they score, we're the home team.' So, we've handled hard, and I'm so proud of the way we won that game because we earned it there in the ninth.
Louisville set the tone early. After a leadoff single from Alicea — confirmed after a successful challenge — the Cards jumped in front on a two-out RBI single by King in the first.
Munroe mashed a two-run homer in the third to extend the lead to 3-0. And after Oregon State answered with a two-run shot from Jacob Krieg in the fourth, Zion Rose responded with a solo blast to make it 4-2.
Oregon State loaded the bases in the sixth, but Gavin West limited the damage to one run, preserving a 4-3 lead.
The Cardinals got that run back immediately. Garrett Pike came off the bench with a two-out double, and Kamau Neighbors delivered an 0-2 RBI single to right. An inning later, they added another when Klein scored on King’s first sacrifice fly of the game, stretching the lead to 6-3.
It wouldn’t hold — but King made sure it didn’t matter.
After the game, McDonnell presented the game jersey to Alicea.
"We got the best shortstop in the country," McDonnell told Moth. "And so he leads off with a walk there (in the ninth), and he ends up being the winning run. You know we say, 'So what? Now what?' And Alex is the epitome of toughness, you know, with our position players."
Louisville will now face Coastal Carolina on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in another elimination game.
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