ATLANTA - Brendan McKay allowed just one hit in eight dominant innings on the mound and added pair of hits at the plate to lead the No. 2 Louisville baseball team to a 3-0 victory over Georgia Tech in Thursday night's series-opener at Russ Chandler Stadium.

 

McKay finished with eight strikeouts while surrendering only a fourth inning single to go with two walks to move to 5-2 on the season and 26-9 in his collegiate career. The junior lefthander retired the final 13 batters he faced while reaching eight strikeouts in a game for the 24th time. McKay, who ranks second in career strikeouts at Louisville with 321, has a 1.19 ERA and 76 strikeouts in his 53.0 innings this season. Along with the impressive work as a pitcher, McKay finished 2-for-4 as a hitter to raise his average on the season to .404 overall.

 

Following the eight strong innings by McKay, junior righthander Lincoln Henzman twirled a scoreless ninth inning to earn his 10th save of the season and complete the seventh shutout for the Cardinals (29-4, 13-3 ACC). Henzman has a 1.77 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 13 appearances and 20.1 innings of work this season.

 

Devin Hairston delivered his third straight multi-hit game finishing 3-for-4 with a run scored as the Cardinals finished with a 10-1 advantage in hits against the Yellow Jackets (16-16, 4-12). Drew Ellis and Colby Fitch added RBI singles for Louisville, while Devin Mann singled, scored once and chipped in with a stolen base.

 

The Cardinals opened the scoring with a pair of runs in third inning against Georgia Tech starter Ben Schniederjans. Fitch delivered the first run with a RBI single to right field to score Mann, who singled and took second on a single by Logan Taylor earlier in the inning. Taylor, who went from first to third on the single by Fitch, scored the second run of the inning on a wild pitch.

 

Louisville extended the lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning when Hairston scored from third on a RBI single by Drew Ellis. Hairston started the inning with a single to center and advanced to third on a single to right by McKay.

 

Louisville Athletics - McKay Shines in No. 2 Louisville’s Shutout Win at Georgia Tech

McKay has a real good chance to be the player of the year in college baseball.