Louisville took the second game of the series 6-3 on Saturday.
RALEIGH, N.C. – March 20, 2021
The seventh-ranked University of Louisville baseball team earned its second straight road victory at NC State, picking up a 6-3 victory on Saturday.
Louisville (13-5, 6-2 ACC) used early offense to get ahead and escaped an eighth inning jam to secure its fifth straight win in conference play.
The Cardinals were once again on the board first Saturday, as Lucas Dunn rifled a line drive to right field for a sacrifice fly in the second inning. Christian Knapczyk followed with a two-out single through the left side that plated Levi Usher and gave UofL a 2-0 edge.
One inning later, Henry Davis manufactured a run of his own. The catcher singled with one away and then took advantage of things on the basepaths. A groundball back to the pitcher resulted in the second out, but Davis never stopped running around second and took off for third on the play. On the attempt to throw Davis out at third, the throw was wide of the base and the sophomore came all the way around to score.
NC State (4-8, 1-7) scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to get within one, but the Cardinals had a quick answer. A throwing error with two outs in the sixth allowed Usher to score, and Trey Leonard singled home Luke Brown in the seventh to push the margin back to three.
The Wolfpack led off the eighth inning with a solo homer and then put the tying runs on base with nobody out. Louisville closer Kaleb Corbett entered and gave up a leadoff single to load the bases, but got out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts and a flyout to the warning track to preserve the lead.
Cameron Masterman provided some insurance for the Cardinals with a RBI double in the ninth before Corbett slammed the door shut in the bottom half of the frame.
Glenn Albanese (3-0) stayed unbeaten on the season with six strong innings on Saturday. The right-hander allowed just two runs on five hits and struck out three. Corbett finished with two scoreless innings and three strikeouts for his third save.
Knapczyk went 3-for-4 at the plate to lead Louisville’s offense. Davis was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored, extending his hitting streak to 20 games.
Louisville and NC State will finish up the weekend series on Sunday with first pitch set for 11 a.m. ET.
