Louisville Baseball vs. #2 Wake Forest 4-16-2023 Photo by William Caudill, TheCrunchZone.com

Cards Host Miami For 3-Game Set Starting Today at 4:00

Mark BlankenbakerApril 27, 2023

The University of Louisville baseball team returns to Jim Patterson Stadium for a three-game series against No. 12 Miami beginning Thursday at 4 p.m. ET on ACC Network. Friday’s game is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET with the finale set for Saturday at 1 p.m. ET. The final two games will be televised on ACC Network Extra with radio coverage available all series on 93.9 The Ville and 970 WGTK.

ABOUT THE CARDINALS

Six Louisville pitchers combined for a four-hit shutout in a 7-0 win at No. 10 Kentucky on Tuesday night. Evan Webster, Kade Grundy, Kaleb Corbett, Patrick Forbes, Kayden Campbell and Tate Kuehner combined for Louisville’s third shutout of the season.

The Cardinals will take on yet another ranked team in Miami this weekend. Louisville is in a stretch of 15 games with 11 of them against ranked teams. Three of the four games against an unranked opponent were at Duke, who is now ranked in all six major polls.

SERIES HISTORY

Louisville and Miami have met 16 times previously with the two teams splitting them eight apiece. The Hurricanes have won four of the last five, including a three-game sweep in Louisville in the final series of the 2021 regular season.

TEAM NOTES

Louisville owns 153 conference wins since joining the ACC in 2015, the most conference wins during that time of any Power Five school.
UofL has won 53 of its 78 ACC series (53-21-2 – one series ended 1-1, one ended 1-1-1) since joining the league and is 58-17-1 in its series finales during that span, including a 21-8-1 record in rubber games.
The Cardinals have won 31 of their 38 ACC series at home since debuting in the conference.
Louisville had just 12 stolen bases through the first 14 games, but has stolen 58 in the last 26.
Fifteen different Cardinals have stolen a base this season.
The Cardinals rank top 20 nationally in earned run average (3.97) and hits allowed per nine innings (7.57).
Louisville has recorded three shutouts this spring (Eastern Kentucky, Michigan, Kentucky). The Cardinals only had two shutouts in the two previous seasons combined.
The Cardinals have held the opposition to two runs or fewer 17 times this spring. Louisville limited opponents to two or less 14 times in 2022.
Louisville has been excellent early in games this spring, doubling up opponents 112-56 in the first three innings.
Through 40 games, the Cardinals have started 38 different batting orders and 33 different defensive alignments.

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 nine this season. However, Payton has shown more power this spring, matching his total from last year just 10 games into 2023 and sitting with more than double that number entering the weekend. He recorded his first multi-homer game at Cincinnati, homering in the each of the first two innings, and currently leads the Cards with 16 multi-hit games including six with three hits.
JT Benson hit cleanup in the 2022 Opening Day lineup in his first collegiate game. However, a pair of fluke injuries derailed his sophomore campaign and limited him to just 14 starts. A fully healthy Benson has been excellent in 2023, hitting .315 with 14 extra-base hits and 25 RBI. Benson has also been good on the bases, swiping 11 bags in 13 tries.
Ryan McCoy has provided a power presence in the middle of the Louisville lineup in his first season with the Cards. The junior leads the team in runs, home runs and RBIs and is second in walks. McCoy was 6-for-12 with three home runs and seven RBIs in the series at Duke, including a multi-homer game in the series opener. The first baseman also launched a 480-foot game-tying two-run home run on Saturday, the longest Louisville homer measured on Trackman since it became available in 2019.
Christian Knapczyk is the catalyst at the top of the Louisville lineup and currently ranks third in the ACC with 16 stolen bases and 13 HBPs. The junior has a hit in 29 of the 34 games he’s played this season and has reached base in all but three contests. Knapczyk has missed the last five games due to injury.
Brandon Anderson made just seven starts during his freshman season, posting a .316 average with all 12 of his hits going for singles. Anderson was Louisville’s Opening Day starter at third base but started only sporadically through the first month of the season. The sophomore has started each of the last 12 games and has been excellent when he’s been in the starting lineup this season, hitting .351 (27-for-77) with 15 RBIs in his 22 starts.
Carson Liggett earned the Sunday starting role to open the season and has been terrific through the first half of the season. The sophomore is 7-0 and leads the ACC with a 1.64 ERA. The right-hander has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his 10 starts, and is the first Louisville pitcher to win his first seven decisions in a season since Kade McClure finished the 2016 season 12-0.