Louisville Baseball Headed to Dominican Republic

The University of Louisville baseball team’s visit to the Dominican Republic later this week will include a trio of community service opportunities as well as four games against professional competition, highlighted by contests against Estrellas Orientales and Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League.

The Cardinals will depart Louisville on Friday for the program’s first ever international trip and will immediately begin the community service outreach upon their arrival in the Dominican Republic with a youth baseball clinic that evening. Saturday’s community service schedule will allow the Louisville players and coaches to assist with providing food to an orphanage as well as feeding a local village.

Louisville’s game schedule will begin on Saturday at 10 a.m., ET with two split squad games against local independent professional clubs at The Highlands Complex in Boca Chica. The split squad games will allow head coach Dan McDonnell, who is in his 10th season guiding the Louisville baseball program, to provide valuable on-field experience to both the upperclassmen and the newcomers.

The featured game of the weekend is slated for Sunday at 5 p.m., ET when Louisville will challenge Estrellas Orientales in its home venue, 8,000-seat Estadio Tetelo Vargas in San Pedro de Macorís. The Estrellas Orientales baseball franchise began in 1910 and won league titles in 1954 and 1968.

The Cardinals’ fourth and final game while in the Dominican Republic is slated for Monday at 11 a.m., ET against Leones del Escogido at the Arizona Diamondbacks Complex-Baseball City in Boca Chica. The Leones del Escogido baseball franchise was founded in 1921 and is a 12-time league champion while also winning four Caribbean Series championships.

The five-day trip for Louisville, which coincides with the university’s mid-term break, will conclude on Tuesday with the team’s return home. The Cardinals are partnering with SCORE International for its housing, transportation and community service work while on the ground in the Dominican Republic. SCORE International is a short term mission organization with extensive experience providing all-inclusive trips.

ABOUT THE 2016 Louisville Nine

The Cardinals return an experienced, talented and deep roster of players from last year’s record-setting club, which won the ACC Atlantic Division title with the most league wins in conference history (25-5 record) and advanced to an NCAA Super Regional for the third straight season. Louisville returns more than 75 percent of its pitching starts from 2015, anchored by the 1-2 All-American punch of senior righty Kyle Funkhouser and sophomore lefty Brendan McKay. The pitching staff also returns 83 percent of its relief innings, including All-American junior closer Zack Burdi, talented junior lefty Drew Harrington and Freshman All-Americans Lincoln Henzman and Sean Leland.

Offensively, the Cardinals return seven players who started 30 or more games last season, including the top three hitters in junior outfielder and All-American Corey Ray, junior infielder Nick Solak and McKay, the reigning John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year. Collectively, Louisville returns 78 percent of its runs driven in, 73 percent of its extra-base hits, 72 percent of its total hits and 70 percent of its runs scored from the 2015 team.

LOUISVILLE BASEBALL 2015 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC GAME SCHEDULE

Matchup: Louisville vs. Independent Professional Club (Two split squad games)

Date/Time: Saturday | 10 a.m., ET

Venue: The Highlands Complex

City: Boca Chica, Dominican Republic

Matchup: Louisville vs. Estrellas Orientales

Date/Time: Sunday | 5 p.m., ET

Venue: Estadio Tetelo Vargas

City: San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic

Matchup: Louisville vs. Leones del Escogido

Date/Time: Monday | 11 a.m., ET

Venue: Arizona Diamondback Complex-Baseball City

City: Boca Chica, Dominican Republic

Kelsi Worrell Nominated as Breakout Swimmer of the Year by USA Swimming

University of Louisville swimmer Kelsi Worrell has been nominated as Breakout Swimmer of the Year as USA Swimming announces the 2015 Golden Goggles Awards, which are presented by the USA Swimming Foundation every year to celebrate the top swimmers and coaches’ achievements over the last year.

There are eight categories: Breakout Performer of the Year, Coach of the Year, Perseverance Award, Relay Performance of the Year, Male Performance of the Year, Female Performance of the Year, Male Athlete of the Year, and Female Athlete of the Year.

Worrell is up for the 2015 Breakout Performer Of The Year award which is given to the athlete whose performance(s) stand out in relation to other years, with special emphasis given to the 2015 FINA World Championships.

The three nominees for the Breakout Performer of the Year award are Katie Meili, Jordan Wilimovsky, and Kelsi Worrell.

Worrell’s signature race, the 100-butterfly has put her atop the podium at the NCAA, Pan American Games and Phillips 66 National Championships. Worrell won an NCAA title and set an American record in the 100y fly for the University of Louisville in March, becoming the first woman to break the 50-second mark. In her first international meet at Pan American Games in Toronto, she set a Games record and notched the third-fastest time in the world in 2015 with a 57.24 effort in the 100-meter fly prelims. She went on to win gold in the event and added two relay medals. At the National Championships, Worrell carried her momentum with a victory in the 100m fly at the Phillips 66 National Championships.

Online fan voting is now open and will continue through Friday, Nov. 13. A percentage of the fan vote will count towards the final ballot. Beginning later this week USA Swimming will highlight Golden Goggle Awards categories weekly on usaswimming.org and across its social media channels in the lead-up to the Nov. 22 event. Vote here: http://usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=2104&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en

Men’s Soccer Falls 1-0 to Ohio State

The Louisville men’s soccer team had its three-match unbeaten streak halted with a 1-0 road loss to Ohio State on Tuesday night at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

The Cardinals were shutout for just the second time this season while dropping to 4-3-3 overall. The host Buckeyes improved to 3-4-2 on the season with Tuesday’s triumph on a rainy night in central Ohio.

The only goal of the match came in the 55th minute when Ohio State’s Danny Jensen connected on a header following a free kick from Liam Doyle. The goal for Jensen, directed into the goal just beneath the crossbar, was his second of the season and was setup by Doyle’s free kick from 35 yards out.

The Buckeyes finished with a 9-7 edge in shots with each side finishing with two attempts on goal. Ohio State goalkeeper Chris Froschauer turned away both Louisville shots on goal with each attempt coming in the eighth minute of play. OSU also had a 7-6 advantage in corner kick chances.

Up next, Louisville challenges ACC foe and 10th-ranked Virginia on Friday at 7 p.m., ET in Charlottesville, Va.

The following two tabs change content below.
@UofLSheriff50. Louisville native, University of Louisville Business School Grad c/o 2004. Co-Founder of TheCrunchZone.com

TCZ Comments

comments