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No. 28 Baseball Falls at St. John's in Series Finale
April 17, 2011
QUEENS, N.Y. - The 28th-ranked Louisville baseball team closed a disappointing weekend with a 7-2 loss at St. John's on Sunday afternoon at Jack Kaiser Stadium. With their fifth straight loss overall, the Cardinals dropped to 20-15 on the season and 6-6 in BIG EAST action, while the Red Storm improved to 19-13 overall and 8-4 in league games with the win. Louisville was swept in a BIG EAST Conference series for the first time since joining the league prior to the 2006 season, while the losing streak for the Cardinals is the longest within one season since 2006, when they lost five straight from April 22-29. After going in order at the plate to open Sunday's game, Louisville faced an early deficit and trailed the rest of the day as St. John's scored three runs in the bottom of the first frame. After centerfielder Jimmy Brennan led off with a single through the left side off Cardinals' starter Mike Nastold (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder HS) and second baseman Matt Wessinger followed with a walk, shortstop Joe Panik gave the Red Storm a 3-0 lead with his third home run of the season over the wall in right center. Louisville cut the deficit to 3-1 in the top of the second as junior outfielder Stewart Ijames (Owensboro, Ky./Owensboro Catholic HS) hammered the 0-2 pitch from St. John's starter Brendan Lobban over the wall in right field for his team-leading eighth home run of the season. However, that was as close as the Cardinals would get as the Red Storm added two more runs in the bottom of the second on a solo home run by rightfielder Rowan Wick off Nastold and an RBI single by Panik off reliever Travis Tingle (Louisville, Ky./Butler HS) to score Wessinger for the 5-1 advantage. St. John's added a run in the fifth on a RBI single to left field by outfielder Jeremy Baltz and another run in the seventh on a RBI groundball by Wick for the 7-1 lead. The Cardinals scored the final run of the game in the eighth inning on a RBI single up the middle by Ijames to plate junior second baseman Ryan Wright (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead HS).
Ijames finished 2-for-3 with two RBI for the Cardinals, who were out-hit 13-6. Nastold suffered the loss and dropped to 3-4 on the season after allowing four runs on three hits with three walks in 1.0+ innings, the shortest outing in a start in his career. Lobban earned the win for St. John's and improved to 4-1 after allowing only one run on three hits in 5.0 innings. Up next, Louisville returns home to host Indiana Tuesday at 6 p.m., ET on "Cancer Awareness Night" at Jim Patterson Stadium. More info on the evening can be found online at http://www.uoflsports.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/041611aaa.html. Louisville Notes - U of L committed two errors in the loss on Sunday and finished with 12 in the three-game series at St. John's. Louisville has committed at least one error in 10 straight games overall, while in eight of those games, the Cardinals have finished with two or more errors. - The Cardinals allowed three runs in the first inning of Sunday's game and have now been outscored 33-9 in the first inning this season. - Louisville is 6-11 this season when its opponent scores first. - After entering the weekend tied for the second and only one game out of first in the BIG EAST Conference standings, the Cardinals are now tied for sixth, four games behind first-place Connecticut. |
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