Junior righthander Kade McClure twirled six strong innings and the offense delivered a balanced effort as the No. 4 Louisville baseball team remained unbeaten with an 8-2 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday at Jim Patterson Stadium.

 

The Cardinals improved to 14-0 overall extending the program's best start to a season since the 1957 team set a school record with a perfect 17-0 mark. The nation's only unbeaten team, Louisville clinched its 29th consecutive regular season weekend series victory while also winning its 30th straight regular season home game.

 

McClure finished with six strikeouts and allowed just four hits in six scoreless innings to improve to 2-0 on the season and 15-1 in his collegiate career. A native of Mentor, Ohio, McClure has a 2.08 ERA with 29 strikeouts in 21.1 innings pitched this season. McClure has allowed just one earned run on nine hits in his last three starts covering 18.0 innings.

 

Five different Cardinals had two hits on Saturday as Louisville scored five runs in the first three innings to take command. Senior Logan Taylor paced the way finishing 2-of-4 with a double, two RBI, two stolen bases and a run scored. Junior Colby Fitch was 2-for-4 with his third home run of the season, while freshman Tyler Fitzgerald finished 2-of-3 with a walk and scored twice. Junior Brendan McKay added a pair of hits and scored once and senior Colin Lyman finished 2-for-3 with a double, one walk and one run scored. UofL out-hit the Panthers (7-6, 0-2 ACC) 13-6 while reaching double-figures in hits for the 13th time this season.

 

Louisville, which improved to 2-0 in the ACC for the second straight season, opened the scoring in the first inning on a RBI single to left field by sophomore Devin Mann to plate Taylor. An inning later, Taylor connected for a two-out, two-run double down the left field line to send sophomore Josh Stowers and Fitzgerald home for the 3-0 lead. Devin Hairston pushed the advantage to 5-0 in the third inning on a two-out, two-run double off the top of the left field wall to score McKay and Lyman.

 

The Cardinals added their sixth run of the day in the sixth inning when Stowers scored from third on a groundout by Taylor. Louisville closed its scoring in the eighth inning when Fitch followed a walk to Fitzgerald by powering a 2-2 offering from Yaya Chentouf over the right field wall for his third home run of the season. Pittsburgh plated its first two runs of the series in the ninth inning on a RBI sacrifice fly by Alex Amos and a RBI single from Nico Popa.

 

Louisville Athletics - No. 4 Cardinals Push Win Streak to 14 with 8-2 Victory Over Pittsburgh

Good offense and pitching were the order of the day. McClure was very strong, if not dominant. 2 BBs and 4 hits allowed over 6.0 but no runs. Wolf was OK but a leadoff walk in the 9th up 8-0 is not a recipe for success. 2 runs allowed. Hummel cleaned up nicely.

 

Hairston had a shot in the 3rd inning which either bounced off the berm beyond the fence back into LF or off of the very top of the padded fence. Umps ruled it was not a HR although lots of UofL fans seemed to think it was. They don't use replay during the regular season, only playoffs (and they don't always get it right even with replay as we unfortunately know), but the stream they are using for the ACC Network was not conclusive and the commentator (Sean Moth @CardsPA - who does a great job) has no control over it because they are just basically overlaying his radio broadcast on the video feed (not sure he even has access to what they are showing on the video feed). Ultimately only cost the Cards 1 run in a game that was never really close.

 

Fitch hit a bomb B8 and McKay is learning to cope with the shift now being played against him. He was 2-5 but even those 2 hits were into the teeth of the shift. If he can learn to go the other way (even if he has to bunt 3B side a few times for singles), they'll have to start playing him more traditionally which will open up space to pull the ball.

 

Good to see Taylor have a good day at the top of the lineup. He's definitely the straw that stirs the drink. If he's on base, 2-5 hitters become even more dangerous than they've already shown.