Former Cardinal slugger Chris Dominguez made headlines last night by blasting the first grand slam in the history of the Richmond Flying Squirrels (nice) franchise. The Flying Squirrels (nice) are the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, who selected Dominguez in the third round of the 2009 MLB draft.

"I was just trying to get something I could drive," Dominguez said. "Hit up the middle and try to get a good pitch to hit. He gave me a good fastball to hit, middle-in, and I took advantage of it."

Dominguez is the reigning Eastern League player of the week after going 11-for-24 with seven doubles, a homer and eight RBI last week. He's adjusted quickly to Double-A pitching after hitting .291 with 11 homers and 40 RBIs in the Cal League at San Jose last year.

The U of L baseball team will live to fight another day after knocking off seventh-seeded Cincinnati 5-3 in a Big East Tournament elimination game Thursday morning.

Third baseman Cade Stallings was the offensive star, hitting a solo home run to open the scoring and finishing the day 2-for-3 with three runs scored. Adam Engel, Ryan Wright, Zack Wasserman, and Drew Haynes each added an RBI.

Justin Amlung worked 6 1/3 innings to pick up his 10th win of the season, while closer Tony Zych successfully closed the door on an opponent for the 13th time.

The Cards will be in another do-or-die situation tomorrow afternoon at  3 p.m. when they face the loser of today's game between No. 2 St. John's and No. 3 Pittsburgh. The Panthers bested Louisville 7-2 yesterday.

The sixth-seeded Louisville baseball team fell to No. 3 Pittsburgh 7-2 in the opening game of the Big East Tournament Wednesday morning.

The Cardinal Nine now face the unenviable task of needing to win five games in four days in order to claim the Big East title and a 5th consecutive NCAA Tournament berth. The road begins tomorrow at 10 a.m. against the loser of this afternoon's game between No. 2 St. John's and No. 7 Cincinnati.

Louisville will face No. 3 Pittsburgh in the tournament's opening game on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. The Cards have won this tournament in two of the past three seasons.

Here's the full schedule:

After dropping two of three during a key weekend series at (now) Big East regular season champion Connecticut, the Louisville baseball team is in danger of missing the tournament they've won twice in the last three seasons.

Only eight of the league's 12 teams advance to the Big East Tournament in Clearwater, Fla., and U of L currently sits alone in 7th place, just a game ahead of both Seton Hall and South Florida.

On Sunday, the Cards ended an eight-game losing streak - the program's longest since 1996 - by knocking the Huskies off in extra innings to avoid the weekend sweep. The win was monumental as far as Louisville's hopes to have any postseason are concerned, let alone for their shot at reaching the NCAA Tournament for a fifth straight time. 

Following tonight's essentially meaningless game at Indiana, the Cards will host Notre Dame - which sits just 1/2 game ahead of them in the conference standings - for a regular season-ending three-game set. The first two games of the series will be carried on CBS College Sports.

There's good and bad news as far as the teams sitting directly behind U of L in the standings are concerned. Seton Hall will end its regular season by playing host to last-place Georgetown, which has already been eliminated from postseason consideration. South Florida, however, will face third-place Pittsburgh, which is 15-9 in the league and has already locked up a trip to Clearwater.

Though they're currently in danger of missing the tournament completely, the Cards do still have a shot at finishing as high as fourth in the league depending on what happens this weekend. Just one game separates 12-12 Louisville from 13-11 Cincinnati and West Virginia. The Mountaineers take on 10th-place Rutgers, while Cincinnati will face league champ UConn.

With just one weekend to play, here are your current Big East standings:

The Louisville baseball team snapped a six-game losing streak by taking two of three from visiting South Florida over the weekend at Jim Patterson Stadium.

The Cards topped the Bulls 6-4 and 7-2 before falling in Saturday's series finale by a score of 10-5. Louisville had won six straight over South Florida. They've taken 10 of the last 12 meetings with former head coach Lelo Prado's team.

The Cards currently sit at 22-17, 8-7, and are in a three-way tie for fifth-place in the Big East. Even if their bats come around for the final third of the regular season, it's probably going to take a championship at the Big East Tournament in Clearwater, Fla. for the program to reach its fifth-straight NCAA Tournament.

"Our heads are above water," head coach McDonnell said. "We're not where we want to be, but we're not out of it, either. As I challenged the kids (after the game), the goal is to get better. There's still a lot to play for."

Before hosting a weekend series with Georgetown, Louisville will get a second shot at arch-rival Kentucky when they travel to Lexington on Tuesday night. The Cats topped the Cards 3-2 on April 12, and come players think a little redemption might be what this team needs to get the ball rolling. 

"They got us in what was almost a heartbreaker at our place," second baseman Ryan Wright said. "We'd love nothing more than to return the favor. Hopefully, we can take that game and run with it."

And just so people will have something to comment on.

Your mom's a winner.

Chad Wright's RBI double off U of L flame-thrower Tony Zych proved to be the difference as Kentucky topped Louisville 3-2 in front of 3,245 fans at Jim Patterson Stadium on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals appeared poised for a rally in the home half of the inning. J.J. Ethel singled with one out and Alex Chittenden then quickly worked a 3-0 count from Wildcat reliever Trevor Gott. The rebuttal was quickly quashed, however, as Gott battled back and caught Chittenden staring at strike three, and catcher Michael Williams threw out pinch runner Adam Engel trying to steal second on the pitch to end the game.

"To end the game with a strikeout looking and a throw 'em out shows that we're not competing enough as an offensive unit," said Cardinal outfielder Stewart Ijames.

The loss dropped Louisville to 20-12 on the year. Kentucky improved to 17-17.

The Cards and Cats will meet again in Lexington on April 26. The rivals have split their two meetings in each of the past four seasons.

We really need a sad Will Stein picture.

It's been a bit of an up-and-down rife for the Louisville baseball team this season, which began the year as a consensus top 25 club but has since fallen out of most sets of national rankings. Following a 15-5 loss at Western Kentucky on Tuesday, the Cards sit at 18-10, but are 4-2 in the Big East and still very capable of attaining their goal of winning the league.

Unlike in recent years, the Cardinals have been led by their arms. Only one Louisville player (Ryan Wright) is hitting above .300, which is amazing given the offensive production we've seen from Dan McDonnell's teams in recent years. Conversely, U of L's pitching has a sparkling combined ERA of 2.55, with all three main starters' ERAs falling below 3.0. Sophomore starter Justin Amlung, a former standout at St. Xavier, is putting together one of the better seasons in Cardinal history.

As some of us begin to turn our focus to the diamond, here's a quick rundown of the Cardinal Nine's season to date:

Record: 18-10

Big East Record: 4-2

Big East Rank: Second (UConn leads the league at 5-1)

Leading Hitter: Ryan Wright (.303 avg.)

Other Standout: Stewart Ijames (.265 avg., team-best 6 HR and 24 RBI)

Team Batting Average: .255

Best Pitcher: Justin Amlung (6-0, 0.92 ERA, 33 strikeouts and just 5 earned runs allowed in 48.2 innings of work)

Team ERA: 2.55

Notable Tidbits:

--Dating back to last season, Louisville has won eight straight Big East series.

--The Cardinals have 193 strikeouts and only 87 walks in 250.0 innings.

--Louisville has six shutout wins in 2011, which ranks as the second most in school history.

--Louisville is 17-1 when leading entering the ninth inning.

--Justin Amlung is the first Cardinal pitcher to allow two earned runs or fewer in seven straight starts since Zack Pitts in 2007.

Up Next: A weekend series at Cincinnati (14-12, 3-3)