Louisville tallied 5-1 and 15-6 victories on Saturday at Jim Patterson Stadium.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – May 8, 2021
The 11th-ranked University of Louisville baseball team bounced back and tallied a pair of victories over Duke on Saturday at Jim Patterson Stadium.
Louisville (26-15, 16-10 ACC) won the opening game 5-1 before breaking out the bats for a 15-6 victory in the nightcap.
The Cardinals got the day started off right with a run in the first inning. Luke Brown drew a leadoff walk and stole second before later scoring on a sacrifice fly from Alex Binelas gave the Cardinals a lead.
Luke Seed kept the Blue Devils off the scoreboard through the first four innings to preserve the lead, but exited with a pair of runners on with one away in the fifth. Tate Kuehner entered and needed just two pitches to get the groundball double play to escape the jam.
Binelas doubled the advantage in the sixth with his 14th home run of the season, giving him a home run in four consecutive games. One inning later, Levi Usher knocked a hanging breaking ball over the right field wall for his second homer of the year and his first since the opening weekend of the season.
Brown added a run-scoring single for the fifth run and Kuehner handled the rest on the mound. Kuehner (4-4) allowed just a solo home run over 4.2 innings to secure the victory. The southpaw struck out six on the day.
Saturday’s second game was about offense for the Cardinals. Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Louisville sent 11 men to the plate and pushed eight runs across to blow the game open.
A couple of Duke errors allowed the first two UofL runs to score before Cooper Bowman doubled home a pair of runs to make it a 4-1 contest. Henry Davis picked up a RBI infield single later in the inning and Lucas Dunn launched a three-run home run to left-centerfield to cap off the inning.
Duke (20-20, 10-17) answered right back though, getting five runs in the fifth to get back within striking distance.
Usher went to the opposite field for his second home run of the day in the bottom half of the inning and Adam Elliott shut things down from there.
Elliott pitched the final four innings of the game for his fourth save of the season, allowing a leadoff single in the sixth before retiring the next 12 hitters he faced.
The Louisville offense put the game away in the seventh, getting a run on a bases loaded walk from Binelas before Davis hammered a grand slam into the bleachers in left field.
Bowman and Brown each had four hits between the two games to help lead the offensive attack. Davis drove in five runs, while Binelas tallied four RBIs of his own.
Louisville will be on the road next weekend for three games at North Carolina. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET in Chapel Hill.
