CWS Preview: Louisville

The Louisville Cardinals are the Cinderella story of this NCAA tournament as they have made the College World Series with some impressive victories. Louisville headed out to Columbia (MO) for a NCAA Regional hosted by Missouri. The Cardinals won the first game of the regional over Miami by a score of 13-7 then played the host Tigers in which they lost 7-5. This set up a rematch with Miami which the Cardinals won 8-7 then on the same day knocked off Missouri 4-3 to force a decisive game. The Cardinals jumped all over the Missouri pitching staff for 8 runs in the first inning as they cruised to a 16-6 victory. Louisville was then named the host of their Super Regional showdown with Oklahoma State. Louisville took the opening game 9-0 then lost a heart breaker in game 2 by a score of 3-2 before beating the Cowboys in the decisive game 20-2 to clinch their first trip to the NCAA Tourney. They are led by first year head coach Dan McDonnell who inherited a senior laden team from Lelo Prado who left for University of South Florida. The offense is led by Boomer Whiting who is hitting .367 but has an outrageous amount of stolen bases with 73 in 86 attempts. Isaiah Howes leads the team in hitting with a .392 average and has a team leading 18 homers on the year. In the Super Regional clincher, Howes drove in six runs. The Cardinals pitching staff is led by the two headed monster of Zach Pitts and Justin Marks. Pitts was named the Big East Pitcher of the Year as he currently has a 10-3 record and a 2.23 ERA. Marks was named the Big East Freshman of the Year as he has an 8-2 record with a 2.54 ERA. The Louisville team has some solid players who have been playing extremely well throughout the year and should give any team fits in Omaha.

Louisville CWS Notes