In a game that took more than four and a half hours, Aggie borrowed a page from a Cardinals book and used the heroes of the second half innings to take the first Super Regional game.
I didn’t go on the Cardinals road, but this was one of the college baseball games. Louisville had many opportunities to add leads through intermediate innings, and so did Texas A & M. Aggie’s left 17 runners as a base. This is a great achievement for Louisville’s pitching staff.
Jared Poland got off to a good start and turned it into yet another gritty performance. He didn’t have the best and was sometimes a bit wild, but he gave everything he had in a 4.2 inning job and hit 7 batters on a 109 pitch. This isn’t a small temperature feat where cards were welcomed at College Station this weekend.
From there, McDonnell used five more pitchers and finally handed the ball to Michael Prosecky (L, 2-1) in the eighth inning.
Prosecky walked the lead-off batter and started nine times, but went out twice in a row. The game seemed to go to extras, but Aggie’s had other plans. The single, HBP, and walk-off singles were the appearance of the last three plates of Texas A & M.
The Louisville pitcher issued 10 walks (and 4 HBPs), one of which was a win in the bottom of the ninth.
The attack hit 3 and 10 hits by Cameron Masterman and Ben Metzinger, respectively. Logan Beard chipped in with two RBIs.
The Cardinals brought a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning before Aggie’s used a two-run home run to draw the match. Until that point, their fans didn’t cheer much, but then they turned into juice. They will definitely influence the game tonight and will be in full swing tomorrow.
Louisville must win two games in a row at College Station to advance to the College World Series. The team that loses in the first Super Regional match has only a 20% chance of advancing to CWS.
Based on tonight’s bullpen activity, I think Riley Phillips (5-1, 4.25 ERA) will start for the card on Saturday. The opening ceremony is scheduled for 3 pm and will air on ESPN2.
Be part of 20%.
