Baseball

Louisville’s pitching staff keeps UH at bay during sweep

Louisville's pitching staff held the Cougars to seven runs, which led to the Cardinals earning a sweep. | Justin Tijerina/The Daily Cougar

Louisville’s pitching staff held the Cougars to seven runs, which led to the Cardinals earning a sweep.  |  Justin Tijerina/The Daily Cougar

Hall of Fame pitcher James “Catfish” Hunter once mused that the sun doesn’t always shine on the same dog’s butt every afternoon. This rural wisdom applies to UH’s weekend series with Louisville, which saw the Cardinals hand UH its first sweep of the season.

“We played a great Louisville team this weekend. It is a long season, and I have complete confidence that we will play deep into the postseason,” head coach Todd Whitting said.

Louisville, which returns to Kentucky after a 12-hit, 10-run Sunday performance against UH (26-9, 4-5), stands out as the first team to hand UH a series loss for the season.

“It means a lot for momentum because we haven’t been playing particularly well on the road, so just to come down here against a top-10 team and play like we did is great,” said Louisville junior Kyle McGrath, who pitched in relief and described himself as just another warm body. “It feels good. I’d say, from a pitching standpoint, the thing that changed the most is that we just came out and attacked the strike zone all week. I let guys put balls in play, and we made plays.”

McGrath, along with fellow Louisville pitchers Kyle Funkhouser, Jared Ruxer and Anthony Kidston, held UH batters to a total of seven runs for the entire series and kept any late-inning, two-out rallies from materializing.

The series, which went 4-2, 3-2 and 10-3, saw UH draw large crowds for the first two games of the series, including 3,349 for the Friday game. The leading two games of the series, which were dominated by hotly debated calls at home plate and a Todd Whitting ejection in game one, were UH’s closest efforts before finally succumbing to the sweep on Sunday.

“It’s not something that we really think about,” Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell said. “We just came in trying to play good baseball, especially Friday. Game one, hostile environment and we were able to win a close game. Then Saturday we come in and were able to win a close game again.”

Saturday’s game saw the Cougars scratch and claw their way into loading the bases in the ninth before the game was over in a flash on a double play that left a suddenly raucous Cougar Field gawking in silence.

The play started on a line drive from senior first baseman Casey Grayson to Louisville junior shortstop Sutton Whiting, who dove from his heels, glove fully extended, to snare the ball and start the game-ending double play.

“I saw it come off the bat, but it kind of tricked me a little,” Whiting said. “I thought he hit it harder than he did. I said a little prayer before the play and just jumped.”

Despite the results not being what UH envisioned when the series started, McDonnell was quick to give effusive praise for his conference rival.

“Houston is a very good team,” McDonnell said. “It’s like I told their coach (Saturday) night — this game, when you’re playing good teams, a few pitches, a few swings, a few plays can go their way, and I would challenge the Houston fans and the people here — I wouldn’t give up on this team. This is a regional team with three great starters, a really good lineup and we were fortunate that we played good baseball and came out on top. I would expect these guys to bounce back and continue to have a great season.  They might be one the best clubs we’ve played all season.”

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