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No. 18 Baseball Wins Series-Opener at Georgetown, 5-1
April 5, 2012
BETHESDA, Md. - Junior righty Justin Amlung pitched seven strong innings in winning his fifth straight start while freshman infielder Zach Lucas had two hits and two RBI as the No. 18 Louisville baseball team earned a series-opening 5-1 victory over Georgetown on Thursday afternoon at Shirley Povich Field. Amlung (Louisville, Ky./St. Xavier HS) allowed just one run on three hits with eight strikeouts in 7.0+ innings to improve to 6-2 on the season and earn his 21st career victory, which places him tied for third on Louisville's career win list with Mike Shields (1975-78). In his last four starts, Amlung has allowed only three earned runs with 35 strikeouts in 28.2 innings pitched for an ERA of just 0.94. After Amlung worked into a bases loaded jam in the eighth inning, sophomore lefty Cody Ege (Cherokee, Iowa/Washington HS) recorded back-to-back outs, including a strikeout of Rand Ravnaas, while senior righty Derek Self (Cave City, Ky./Caverna HS) followed with a strikeout of Mike Garza to end the eighth inning threat. Self then pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his team-leading seventh save of the season. Offensively, Lucas (Louisville, Ky./Butler HS) finished 2-for-4 overall, including a pivotal two-run double in the Cardinals' three-run third inning. Junior second baseman Nick Ratajczak (Joliet, Ill./Gulf Coast CC) added an RBI double and scored once, sophomore outfielder Adam Engel (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland HS) singled, walked and scored twice, sophomore outfielder Cole Sturgeon (Owensboro, Ky./Owensboro Catholic HS) added an RBI single and freshman outfielder Mike White (East Orange, N.J./Salisbury HS) had an RBI double in the win for the Cardinals (22-8, 6-1 BIG EAST).
Following two scoreless innings to open Thursday's game, Louisville scored three runs on two hits against Georgetown (14-16, 2-5 BIG EAST) starter Will Harris. After leading off the inning with a walk, Engel scored on the RBI double to right center by Ratajczak for the 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, Ratajczak and sophomore outfielder Jeff Gardner (Louisville, Ky./Whitefield Academy), who reached base with a walk, scored on the two-run double by Lucas for the 3-0 advantage in the third. The Cardinals pushed their lead to 4-0 in the sixth inning when junior Zak Wasserman (Stevensville, Mich./Lakeshore HS) reached base with a single to right, moved to second on the 10th sacrifice bunt of the season for sophomore catcher Kyle Gibson (Henderson, Ky./Henderson County HS) and then scored on the two-out RBI single by Sturgeon. The lead remained that way until the eighth inning when the Hoyas broke through for their only run of the game after loading the bases with an HBP, a single and a walk against Amlung and then scored on a walk from Louisville righty Matt Koch (Cherokee, Iowa/Washington HS) to outfielder Justin Leeson. With the bases loaded and no outs, Ege and Self followed to end the threat with three straight outs. The Cardinals scored the final run of the game in the ninth when White doubled down the right field line to score Engel, who reached base earlier in the inning with a bunt single. Louisville and Georgetown will continue the three-game series on Friday at 4 p.m., ET while the weekend finale is set for Saturday at noon. Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball. |
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