Louisville Run-Ruled vs. Clemson in Finale to Drop Series

With their weekend series against Clemson heading to the game three rubber match, the Louisville baseball program fell flat on their face in the series finale, suffering a 17-7 defeat via seven inning run-rule on Sunday at Jim Patterson Stadium.

With the series loss to the No. 4 Tigers (34-9, 15-6 ACC), the Cardinals (25-18, 10-11 ACC) move to just 2-5 in ACC series so far this season, and get back under .500 in league play.

Yet again, the pitching staff for Louisville struggled immensely. They tied a season-high in earned runs with 17, and their 18 hits allowed was the second-most on the year. The Cardinals gave up 17 earned runs on 21 hits in a 21-3 loss to Virginia on Apr. 12.

Offensively, Alex Alicea (2-4, 3 RBI, 2B) tied his career-high in RBI, while Isaac Humphrey (1-3, HR, 2 RBI) drove in multiple runs as well. Matt Klein (3-4) also had a three-hit day.

Clemson's batters teed off on Louisville's pitchers to start the contest, scoring seven unanswered runs and 12 over the first three innings. Starter Will Koger (1.0 IP, 5 H, 4 ER) gave up a pair of RBI doubles and a two-run home run in the first, then Riley Phillips (1.0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER) surrendered a two-run bomb of his own on top of a solo homer in the next inning.

Alicea broke the Cardinals shutout in the second with an RBI single, but the Tigers immediately responded with a five-spot in the third. After Phillips gave up a leadoff hit, Dan Snyder (0.0 IP, 2 BB, 3 H, 4 ER) was inserted into the game, but proceeded to allow two RBI singles and a bases clearing double before Jared Lessman (3.0 IP, 2 K, 1 BB, 3 H, 1 ER) got Louisville out of the inning.

After Clemson tallied an RBI single off of Lessman in the next frame, Louisville started to claw back into the game. J.T. Benson (0-3, RBI, BB) had an RBI groundout in the fourth, then Humphrey launched a solo homer in the fifth. On top of that, Lessman tossed a perfect fifth while Kade Grundy (1.1 IP, 1 BB, 1 H, 2 ER) did the same in the sixth.

Things got interesting in the bottom of the sixth, as Louisville took a big chunk out of their deficit with a quartet of runs. Alicea struck again with a two-run double, while Humphrey and Zion Rose (1-3, RBI, BB) each collected RBI groundouts.

However, Clemson immediately pushed the game back into run-rule territory with a four-run seventh inning. Grundy gave up a sacrifice fly, then after Kayden Campbell (0.0 IP, 1 K, 2 H, 2 ER) was inserted, he surrendered an RBI double and a two-run homer.

Carson Liggett (0.2 IP) got the final two outs of the seventh, but Louisville was unable to scratch across a run in the bottom of the frame to stave off the run-rule.

Next up for Louisville, they'll take on Northern Kentucky in a midweek matchup. First pitch is slated for Tuesday, Apr. 30 at 6:00 p.m. EST, and will be televised on the ACC Network Extra and broadcast on 93.9 The Ville.