Cards with a very good win on the road at current Top 10 and perennial power Vandy to bring the Barrel back to Louisville.

 

McClure runs his record to 10-0 with a very impressive, if short, outing. Over 5.0 IP, he allowed only 3 H and 8/15 outs recorded were Ks. That said, he walked 2, hit 2 and worked deep counts on several others to force 97 pitches in 5.0 IP. 4th inning was indicative. HBP, backwards K, BB, backwards K, BB, K. I can only remember 1 of the 3 hits they had being hard hit. Others were seeing eye grounders or nubbers. On the other side, Cards hit the ball hard ALL DAY. Even the outs they made were hard hit. They really barreled the ball all day long.

 

Sparger followed and worked a scoreless 6th but was shaky giving up a 3 R HR after a single & a walk without recording an out in the 7th. Henzman was solid in relief and Burdi was again LIGHTS OUT over 2.0 IP to clean things up. Even with 3 Ks, he needed only 23 pitches over those 2.0 IP. Love to see him rounding into form.

 

HRs were the order of the day for the Cards on offense. Ellis started things with a 2 out, 3 R BOMB over the green monster in LF in the 2nd. Lyman had already driven in the 1st run with a key 2 out hit after Rosenbaum failed to drive Solak home from 3B with

 

Big series with Top 10 NC State at JPat this weekend. If McClure continues to pitch well against IU next week, McDonnell may have a tough decision when he has to decide on a 3rd starter in regional or super-regional play (if they get there). At a minimum, Funkhouser would have a very short leash if McClure didn't work in either of the 1st 2 games. Regardless, great asset to have for an already deep bullpen that has shown some fraying around the ends.

High quality mid week game. Won't find many (if any) better non-conference, mid week match ups in the country this year. Maybe Florida v Florida State or Miami, or perhaps A&M vs one of the other TX schools, but that's about it - assuming these schools are playing each other mid week this year.