Louisville Baseball vs. Morehead State 3-7-2023 Photo by William Caudill, TheCrunchZone.com

Cardinals Host Dayton for Three-Game Series

Mark BlankenbakerMarch 10, 2023

The University of Louisville baseball team welcomes Dayton to Jim Patterson Stadium this weekend for three games beginning on Friday at 3 p.m. ET. The series continues with games Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. All three games will be televised on ACC Network Extra and radio coverage will be available all weekend on 970 WGTK, with the Saturday and Sunday games also airing on 93.9 The Ville.

ABOUT THE CARDINALS

Louisville cruised to an 11-1 victory over Morehead State on Tuesday for its sixth consecutive win. The Cardinals held an opponent to one run or less for the sixth time this season and fourth time in the last six games.

The next win for the Cardinals will be number 700 for head coach Dan McDonnell. McDonnell will be the 33rd active Division I head coach with 700 career wins and his .708 winning percentage is the highest amongst the 33 coaches.

SERIES HISTORY

Louisville and Dayton have 12 previous meetings with the all-time series even at six apiece. However, the two programs have not played since the 1999 season when the Cards won two out of three.

TEAM NOTES

Louisville has an .851 winning percentage (143-25) in regular season non-conference games since the start of 2016, including a 115-13 (.898) mark in regular season non-conference home games.
The Cardinals have recorded at least 10 hits in 10 of the first 12 games. Louisville tallied double-digit hits 41 times during the 2022 season.
The Cardinals rank fifth nationally in hits allowed per nine innings at 5.94.
Louisville opponents have scored in just four of the 52 innings played over the last six games.
UofL starting pitchers have not had a run scored against them while they were still in the game over the last five games, covering 26 innings.
The Cardinals have held the opposition to two runs or fewer eight times through 12 games. Louisville limited opponents to two or less 14 times in 2022.
Louisville has been excellent early in games this spring, outscoring opponents 24-3 in the first two innings.

PLAYER NOTES

Jack Payton finished with an ACC-best 23 doubles in 2022, but homered just four times. The junior is still racking up the doubles with five already this season. However, Payton has shown more power this spring and matched his sophomore season total just 10 games into 2023. Payton is 19-for-38 (.500) over the last nine games and has his average up to .467. He enters the weekend with five straight multi-hit games and a 20-game on-base streak.
Eddie King Jr. sat out the 2022 season with an injury, but his playing career started with a bang. The outfielder got off to a blistering start with hits in seven of his first 11 at-bats and reaching base in 11 of his first 15 plate appearances. The sophomore kept his hot start going in Houston, picking up hits in five of his eight at-bats.
Ryan McCoy has announced his presence in the middle of the Louisville lineup immediately. The junior is tied for the team-lead or leads in runs, home runs and RBIs through 12 games. McCoy is one of eight Louisville hitters with an OPS over 1.000 entering the weekend.
Patrick Forbes came to Louisville with high expectations as the 2022 Kentucky Mr. Baseball winner. The freshman recorded his first and second career home runs in consecutive plate appearances against Eastern Kentucky. Forbes was the first Louisville true freshman to homer twice in a game since Alex Binelas did so against Florida State on May 16, 2019.
Christian Knapczyk picked up right where he left off last spring hitting .378 to start the season, reaching base 29 times and scoring 13 runs. Knapczyk was the sparkplug at the top of the order in 2022 with the Cardinals averaging 9.1 runs in the 53 games he started versus just 6.2 in the 11 games he did not start.
Ryan Hawks drew the Opening Day start for the Cardinals, just the second start of his collegiate career. The senior has been dominant through three starts this spring, allowing just one earned run in 19.2 innings with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 25-5. Hawks shut out No. 12 Texas A&M over six two-hit innings for his third win in as many starts.
Greg Farone dominated junior college hitters in 2022, striking out 139 in just 60 innings on the mound. He has had similar success early in his time with the Cards, taking the mound four times and punching out 21 batters in 12.1 innings. Farone made his first start as a Cardinal against No. 10 TCU in Houston and was stellar, tossing seven shutout innings before a leadoff single came around to score after he left the game in the eighth.
Carson Liggett earned the Sunday starting role to open the season and has been terrific through three weekends. The sophomore is 3-0 and turned in the best start of his college career against Michigan in the finale at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Liggett gave up just one hit over seven shutout innings in what turned out to be a complete-game effort as the Cards run-ruled Michigan.

LOUISVILLE STARTING PITCHING SHINES IN TEXAS

While the offense ran up 27 runs on 37 hits over three games, the Louisville starting pitching put on an impressive display at the 2023 Shriners Children’s College Classic.

Ryan Hawks, Greg Farone and Carson Liggett combined to allow just one run on five hits in 20 innings of work against No. 12 Texas A&M, No. 10 TCU and Michigan. It marked the first time Louisville starters worked at least six innings each with just a combined one run allowed in a weekend series since Reid Detmers (8 IP, 0 R), Nick Bennett (7 IP, 1 R) and Bryan Hoeing (7 IP, 0 R) gave up one run in 22 innings against James Madison in 2019.

The last time the Cardinals pulled off the feat against Power Five competition came in 2017 when Brendan McKay (7 IP, 0 R), Kade McClure (6 IP, 0 R) and Nick Bennett (6 IP, 0 R) didn’t allow a run versus Pitt.

LIGGETT BLANKS MICHIGAN, NAMED ACC & NATIONAL PITCHER OF THE WEEK

Sophomore right-hander Carson Liggett garnered ACC Pitcher of the Week and NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week honors after twirling a seven-inning one-hit shutout against Michigan in the finale of the 2023 Shriners Children’s College Classic.

Liggett gave up just one hit, allowed only three baserunners and retired 16 of the final 17 batters he faced. The complete-game effort was the first by a Louisville pitcher since Brendan McKay shutout Ole Miss in Oxford on Feb. 27, 2016.

The sophomore was the first Louisville player to earn NCBWA National Player of the Week honors since Logan Wyatt in April of 2019.