Cardinals Walk-Off #7 Texas on Opening Night

Mark BlankenbakerFebruary 15, 2025

The University of Louisville baseball team was a walk-off winner on the opening night of the 2025 baseball season, downing No. 7 Texas, 4-3, at the Shriners Children’s College Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

Despite a strong pitching effort, a two-run home run in the second inning put Louisville (1-0) on the wrong end of a 2-0 scoreline in the ninth inning.

Matt Klein led off the ninth inning with a single and Jake Munroe nearly tied the game with a deep fly to left, however the ball hit near the top of the wall for a double that put the tying runs in scoring position with just one away.

A strikeout put the Cardinals down to their last out, but Garret Pike delivered with a two-run single for his first hit in a Louisville uniform.

In the 10^th, Texas (0-1) grabbed the lead back on a one-out solo homer, but the Cardinals had a second round of heroics still to come.

Kamau Neighbors lined a double into the left field corner to open the bottom half of the frame and was bunted to third by Alex Alicea. Zion Rose then beat the drawn-in infield with a single into centerfield to tie the game at three.

Klein followed with a walk and both runners moved up on a passed ball. Munroe was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Lucas Moore sparked the celebration with a line drive into left-centerfield to complete the comeback.

Patrick Forbes was electric in the opening night start on Friday. The right-hander struck out a career-best 11 batters over five innings, allowing just two runs and five hits.

Justin West struck out three in his 1.1 innings of work, while Jack Brown retired eight of the nine batters he faced in 2.2 scoreless innings in his collegiate debut. Tucker Biven (1-0) took care of the 10^th inning to earn the victory.

Rose, Klein and Moore all had multiple hits for the Cardinals, which tallied 11 in the victory.

Louisville takes the diamond against No. 13 Oklahoma State on Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.