Louisville Blasts Notre Dame in Regular Season Finale to Complete Sweep

The Cardinals launched five home runs in their series finale against the Fighting Irish.

Louisville catcher Matt Klein (25) / Jared Anderson - Louisville Report

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
ND	0	0	0	0	0	5	1	0	0	6	9	0
UL	0	3	1	2	2	4	0	2	X	14	12	1

W: Colton Hartman (1-2), L: Rory Fox (2-3)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Taking the field for the final time of the regular season, the Louisville baseball program was able to take care of business in their series finale against Notre Dame, capturing a 14-6 win on Friday at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Having swept a doubleheader the day before, the victory hands the Cardinals (32-22, 16-14 ACC) a three-game sweep over the Fighting Irish (27-25, 9-21 ACC) to end the regular season. Of Louisville's four series wins in ACC play this season, three have been sweeps.

Jim Patterson Stadium was a launching pad in the finale, with Louisville hitting five home runs. Eddie King Jr. (2-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI, BB) hit two homers to increase his series total to five, while Dylan Hoy (2-4, HR, 2 RBI, BB), Isaac Humphrey (2-5, HR, RBI) and Ryan McCoy (1-2, HR, RBI, BB) also went yard.

On the day, Hoy, King, Gavin Kilen (2-5, 3 RBI, 2 2B) and Zion Rose (2-4, 2 RBI) drove in multiple runs; while Hoy, Humphrey, Kilen, King and Rose all had two-hit days.

Louisville got the scoring starting with a three-spot in the second, with all three runs coming via the home run ball. Humphrey led off the inning with a 424-foot blast to right center, King hit a 369-footer to straightaway left immediately afterwards for back-to-back jacks, then McCoy hit a two-out, 393-foot solo homer to left-center.

The Cardinals didn't stop there, adding five more runs over the next three innings following the second inning fireworks. Hoy launched a 354-foot solo homer to left field in the third, Alex Alicea (0-2, RBI, SF) collected a sacrifice fly and J.T. Benson (1-4, RBI, 2B, BB) struck an RBI double in fourth, then King blasted a two-run, 367-foot home run to right in the sixth.

Backing up the early scoring barrage, Louisville got a great start on the mound from Colton Hartman (5.0 IP, 7 K, 3 BB, 3 H, 0 ER). The true freshman rebounded from his shaky start last weekend at North Carolina, setting career-highs in strikeouts, total pitches (92) and longest scoreless outing.

After Hartman's day was done, Notre Dame certainly made things interesting, putting up five run in the sixth inning. Kayden Campbell (0.1 IP, 1 K, 1 BB, 3 H, 5 ER) allowed a solo homer and another run to come in off a wild pitch, then Carson Liggett (0.1 IP, 1 H) gave up a bases loaded hit-by-pitch and a two-run single. It took Tucker Biven (2.1 IP, 1 K, 1 BB, 2 H, 1 ER) coming in with two outs to get Louisville out of the frame.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Cardinals got four of those runs right back. Hoy drew a bases loaded walk, Rose hit a two-RBI single, and Kilen collected a groundout RBI. Two innings later, Kilen struck again with a two-run double in the eighth.

While Biven did give up an RBI single in the seventh, that would be the only run he would allow, going on to pitch a perfect eighth. Ty Starke (0.2 IP) and Parker Detmers (0.1 IP) then combined to toss a scoreless ninth inning to close out the regular season.

Next up for Louisville, they'll head down to Charlotte, N.C. for the ACC Baseball Championship. Pool assignment, along with date and television designation, will be announced tomorrow evening.

(Photo of Matt Klein: Jared Anderson - Louisville Report)

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