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No. 12 Cardinals Arrive in California for Fullerton Super Regional
June 3, 2009
FULLERTON, Calif. - The 12th-ranked University of Louisville baseball team arrived in Southern California on Wednesday afternoon in preparation for Friday night's NCAA Super Regional opener against No. 2 national seed Cal State Fullerton at Goodwin Field. The Cardinals (47-16) and Titans (45-14) will open the Fullerton Super Regional on Friday at 7:30 PT (10:30 ET) on ESPN2, while Saturday's second game is set for 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET) on ESPN. If necessary, Louisville and Cal State Fullerton will play a decisive third game on Sunday at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET) on ESPN2. The winner of the Fullerton Regional will advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., and first round match up with the winner of the Florida State-Arkansas matchup in the Tallahassee Super Regional. Playing in their second Super Regional in three years, the Cardinals advanced with Monday night's 5-3 win over Vanderbilt in the championship game of the Louisville Regional at Jim Patterson Stadium. Louisville has already matched the school record for wins with 47, set during the 2007 run to the College World Series, and the Cards earned their third straight NCAA Championship bid by winning their second straight BIG EAST Tournament title. The Titans advanced to the Super Regional after sweeping through their NCAA Regional games at Goodwin Field with two wins over Utah and another win over Gonzaga. Cal State Fullerton, which finished second in the Big West Conference race during the regular season, is one of the winningest programs in college baseball history with four NCAA titles and is considered by many college baseball experts to be the signature program for west coast baseball. Louisville and Cal State Fullerton have never met on the baseball diamond and the Cardinals have played only game in their history against any of the current members of the Big West Conference with a 17-8 loss at Cal State Northridge in 2001. This will be Louisville's first games on the west coast since 2004, when the Cards dropped their season-opener at No. 16 USC 7-0 before winning 19-6 at San Diego State.
U of L is just the fourth team from the Eastern Time Zone to travel to the Pacific Time for a Super Regional series since the current format was adopted for the 1999 season. Michigan was the last team to make the trip out west from the east in 2007 dropping two straight games (1-0, 8-2) to eventual national champion Oregon State. In 2001, South Carolina became the only team from the Eastern Time Zone to earn a win in a Super Regional game on the road against a team in the Pacific Team Zone with its 4-3 win in Game Two at Stanford. The Cardinal went on to advance to the CWS with an 11-1 win in Game One and a 3-2 win in Game Three. Also in 2001, Florida International fell 5-1 and 6-0 at USC in its Super Regional games in Los Angeles. All of Louisville's 2009 NCAA Super Regional games will be aired live on WNDA 1570 AM in Louisville and online through CardsTV at www.UofLSports.com. 2009 NCAA Super Regional Schedule Friday, June 5 (ESPN2) Saturday, June 6 (ESPN) Sunday, June 7 (ESPN2) |
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