LOUISVILLE, Ky. - From their first meeting in 1971 to the most recent NCAA postseason thrillers, Louisville and Vanderbilt have provided the region with some of the best matchups that college baseball has to offer. The programs, separated by only 175 miles, have met eight times in the last four seasons including twice in an NCAA Regional. What began as a typical midweek game has evolved into something much larger - a true rivalry.

This season, the Louisville-Vanderbilt game will take on a name of its own as the two teams meet on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET, at Hawkins Field in Nashville in the first Battle of the Barrel. The barrel trophy signifies Kentucky's history as a bourbon-making state and Tennessee's history as a whiskey-making state. Each year, the winning team will be presented with the barrel.

Louisville enters the midweek matchup ranked in every major national poll, including 22nd by Baseball America and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. The Cardinals are 33-15 overall and tied for second in the BIG EAST Conference standings with a 14-7 league record after a series win at West Virginia last weekend.

Vanderbilt is 23-24 overall and 11-13 in Southeastern Conference action after winning two of three games at Tennessee during the weekend. The Commodores are not ranked in any national polls this week.

Tuesday's game will be the 25th all-time between the two schools on the baseball diamond and the 10th in the last five seasons. Some of the most important games in the series came in 2009 and 2010 when the programs met in back-to-back NCAA Regionals in Louisville. The Cardinals were on the winning end of a Monday night title game showdown in 2009, while the Commodores earned the victory in the 2010 championship game.

Live audio of the game will be available to subscribers of CardsTV online at UofLsports.com. Live scoring will be available through the Gametracker feature on the baseball schedule page at UofLsports.com.

Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball.