Freshman lefthander Nick Bennett worked six dominant innings and sophomore outfielder Josh Stowers had a pivotal two-run single to lead the No. 4 Louisville baseball team to its 15th straight win with Sunday's 3-1 victory over Pittsburgh at Jim Patterson Stadium.

 

The Cardinals improved to 15-0 overall extending the program's best start to a season since the 1957 squad set a school record with a perfect 17-0 mark. The nation's only undefeated team, Louisville also won its 31st consecutive regular season home game while moving to 3-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

 

A native of Cincinnati, Bennett allowed only two hits with one walk and four strikeouts in six shutout innings to win his second straight weekend start and move to 2-0 on the season. After surrendering a one-out bunt single in the second inning, Bennett retired the final 14 batters he faced while lowering his season ERA to just 0.56. Bennett also extended his scoreless streak to 14.0 consecutive innings with Sunday's outing.

 

Following Bennett's dominant start, sophomore righty Sam Bordner retired all six batters he faced, including three by strikeout, to get Louisville to the ninth inning. Sophomore Riley Thompson recorded the first two outs of the ninth before junior righty Lincoln Henzman locked down the final out of the game and his third save of the season with a strikeout.

 

In the three-game sweep of the Panthers (7-7, 0-3 ACC), Louisville's trio of starting pitchers – Brendan McKay, Kade McClure and Bennett – did not allow a run while combining for 25 strikeouts and just eight singles in 19.0 innings. Overall, the Cardinals pitching staff surrendered just three runs against Pittsburgh decreasing their season ERA to 1.75.

 

Stowers was 1-for-3 in Sunday's win and provided the biggest hit of the game delivering a two-out single to score a pair of runs in the sixth inning to push the Louisville lead to 3-0. McKay finished 2-for-3 at the plate and scored once to continue his hot start, which includes a .548 batting average, .621 on-base percentage, .905 slugging percentage and 14 RBI.

 

The scoring started in the fourth inning on Sunday when junior Devin Mann scored from third on a RBI groundball off the bat of junior Devin Hairston. The Cardinals pushed their lead to 3-0 in the sixth inning on Stowers' single up the middle to plate McKay and senior Colin Lyman. The Panthers plated their only run of the day in the ninth on a RBI single by Nick Banman.

 

Louisville Athletics - Louisville Stays Unbeaten with 3-1 Win Against Pittsburgh

Interesting that the 2 hits Bennett allowed were both bunt singles. He also retired 14 straight after the 2nd hit in the 2nd inning before being pulled after 6 IP w/ 74 pitches. The only walk he allowed was the game's leadoff batter. Assume he will pitch on SUN until he loses that opportunity based on performance.

 

Great job by Henzman to come back & get the last out after pitching 2.0 IP on FRI in support of McKay. Thompson was a touch wild with a leadoff walk (never a good idea in a 3-0 game) and HBP sandwiched around 2 outs before allowing a hit to drive in Pitt's run. Lots of us thought he closed the game out with a 2 strike curveball on the paint, but blue thought it was inside and the AB eventually ended up with a single. Kid has very good stuff. Just needs to work on location.

 

Stowers' hit was key not only because it drove in 2 of the 3 runs UofL scored, but because it came with 2 out. Those clutch hits are really pick-me-ups for a team battling against good pitching.

 

Pitt has some very nice arms as evidenced by their stats coming into the series. Their offense hasn't clicked yet and UofL's pitching staff didn't help that at all. Nice to get off to a 3-0 start in the ACC.