The final score was 11-1 in favor of the University of Louisville over Oklahoma but it really was one of the better pitching duels of the 2017 college baseball season.
Louisville managing only two hits through the first seven innings off of Oklahoma’s Jake Irvin while Brendan McKay was holding the Sooners to three of them in a 1-1 game after seven. McKay wound up with seven strike outs for the game, bringing his career total to 376 at UofL.
Irvin finally started to look human in the eighth, giving up a walk to Devin Hairston and a single to Colin Lyman. Irvin showing signs of weakness, time for him to go, lifted for reliever Connor Berry.
The guy Logan Taylor wanted to see, propelling a line shot to centerfield, sending Lyman and Josh Stowers home, giving UofL a two-run lead. The Cardinals would collect three more hits, including a two-run triple by Colby Fitch, and four more runs, emerging with a 7-1 lead from the inning.
“It was definitely huge to get some runs to go ahead finally; it was the first lead of the game. But then our guys really poured it on after that,” said Taylor.
The win was the 49th of the season against 10 losses, putting UofL in the driver’s seat. The Cardinals need to win only one game to capture the Regional, facing the winner of Sunday afternoon’s Oklahoma-Xavier game on Sunday at 7 p.m.
It was a sweet dominating win! Go Cards.