The University of Louisville baseball team will square off with Kentucky in Lexington on Tuesday for the second edition of the Battle of the Bluegrass this spring. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on SEC Network Plus. Radio coverage will be available on 93.9 The Ville and 970 WGTK.
CARDINALS SALVAGE FINALE AT NO. 2 CLEMSON
Louisville lost two of three on the road at No. 2 Clemson over the weekend, but outlasted the Tigers for an 8-6 victory in 12 innings on Saturday. Tague Davis hit a two-run homer in the 12th that proved to be the game-winner.
BATTLE OF THE BLUEGRASS HISTORY
Tuesday will be the 117th Battle of the Bluegrass contest. Kentucky leads the all-time series 65-50-1 and holds a 35-19 edge in Lexington. However, the Cardinals have won three straight on the road in the series.
BATTLE OF THE BLUEGRASS PART ONE
The first meeting between the two programs in 2025 went to the Cardinals with a 4-3 walk-off win in 10 innings two weeks ago. Jake Munroe tied the game with a single in the 10th and Eddie King Jr. walked it off with a base hit up the middle.
TEAM NOTES
- Louisville has an .821 winning percentage (188-41) in regular season non-conference games since the start of 2016.
- The Cardinals are 101-22 (.821) under Dan McDonnell against teams from the state of Kentucky (Bellarmine, EKU, Kentucky, Morehead State, Murray State, NKU and WKU).
- The Louisville offense has tallied double digit hits in 23 games this season, going 20-3 in those contests. The Cards notched at least 10 hits 29 times in 2024, posting a 22-7 mark when doing so.
- Louisville has scored 10 runs or more in 18 games this season, including nine ACC contests.
- The Cardinals are 27-3 this season when outhitting their opponent and 0-7 when losing the hit battle.
- Louisville is 23-4 when hitting a home run this season.
- Louisville is 18-2 when it limits the opposition to five runs or less and 26-4 when its opponent is kept in single digits.
- The Cardinals have 14 come-from-behind wins this season, including five walk-off victories.
PLAYER NOTES
- Lucas Moore has been the ultimate weapon at the top of the lineup for the Cards. Moore leads the Cardinals and the ACC with 60 runs scored, third-most in all of Division I. The speedy outfielder is also 28-for-29 in stolen bases, second-most in the league. He also ranks sixth in the ACC in hits, ninth in on-base percentage and 13th in batting average.
- Eddie King Jr. went on the shelf with an injury just four games into the season and missed nearly three weeks. King returned to the starting lineup for the first time in the finale of the North Carolina series, but he has been red hot over the last four weeks. The senior is 24-for-58 (.414) in his last 16 games, with eight doubles, six home runs, 19 runs scored and 27 RBIs. King led the Cardinals in home runs and RBIs in 2024.
- Jake Schweitzer has become a key cog in the Louisville bullpen in his first season with the Cardinals. Since allowing three runs in his collegiate debut, the Louisville native has surrendered just two earned runs in 18.0 innings (1.00 ERA) across 11 relief appearances. Schweitzer earned his first two career wins last week with near-spotless outings against No. 20 Western Kentucky and Clemson.
- TJ Schlageter has taken the reins as Louisville’s midweek starter getting the ball against Northern Kentucky before making consecutive starts against Indiana, Kentucky and No. 20 Western Kentucky. The southpaw has given up just two runs on four hits over 9.2 innings with the Cardinals 4-0 in those contests.
- Jake Munroe has made an immediate impact in the middle of Louisville’s lineup. The junior college All-American is fourth in the ACC in runs and triples, fifth in hits, eighth in batting average, and 13th in RBIs. Munroe has a hit in 31 of 39 games this season with 18 multi-hit games.
- Zion Rose has an exception freshman campaign that saw him hit .380 with 19 extra-base hits and 32 RBIs while finishing with more walks than strikeouts. The 2025 season has seen more of the same but with more damage. Rose is hitting .344 and already has 21 extra-base hits and a team-leading 45 RBIs. The increase in production hasn’t affected his plate discipline though, as he has 17 walks and three HBPs to just 19 strikeouts.
- Garret Pike was a third team All-American as a junior at Toledo in 2024. He’s putting together another strong season in his first year at Louisville. He enters Tuesday’s game hitting .324 with a team-high 16 doubles, three homers and 32 RBIs. Pike is also a perfect 8-for-8 in stolen bases and has seven outfield assists.
FRESHMEN ARMS LOGGING BIG INNINGS FOR CARDS
Louisville pitching coach Roger Williams returned just seven arms that pitched for the Cardinals during the 2024 season, leaving a lot of innings up for grabs.
A large portion of the void left on the mound has been filled by freshmen this spring. Louisville’s freshmen class, plus TJ Schlageter who did not pitch at all last season, has accounted for 37.6 percent (125.1 IP) of the team’s innings this season.
Schlageter is 2-0 with a 2.33 ERA and now works as the team’s midweek starter, while Ethan Eberle is 3-1 and pitching in the weekend rotation. Jake Schweitzer is 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA in 19.0 innings out of the bullpen as well, and Casen Murphy made the first start of his career in game one last weekend at Clemson.
HOME RUN TOTAL CONTINUING TO RISE FOR DAVIS
Tague Davis had a reputation for big power as a standout at Malvern Preperatory School, and that power has been on full display during his freshman season.
Davis leads the Cardinals and ranks second in the ACC with 15 home runs after his go-ahead two-run blast in the 12th inning of the win at Clemson on Saturday. The freshman has three multi-homer games this season, all coming in ACC play.
Davis leads all freshmen across three levels of NCAA baseball in home runs and joins Alex Binelas (14 as a true FR in 2019) and Chris Dominguez (15 as a RS-FR in 2007) as the only freshmen with double digit home runs under Dan McDonnell.
