Louisville baseball takes game one from Virginia Tech, 8-4

It was a change of pace Saturday for Louisville baseball, which took care of business against Virginia Tech with an 8-4 win to improve to 21-5 overall and 7-3 in ACC play.

In addition to playing the first game of a conference series on Saturday, as opposed to the customary Friday-Saturday-Sunday slate, the Cards also had a change on the hill with new No. 1 starter Brendan McKay. McKay moved into the spot that had been occupied by senior Kyle Funkhouser since the start of the 2014 season. Funkhouser, who will start in Monday night's game against the Hokies, is off to a 2-2 start with a less than stellar 4.89 ERA.

Perhaps due to the change, McKay wasn't his usual rock solid self early on Saturday, allowing four run in the visiting half of the third, three of which came on a home run by Virginia Tech's Phil Sciretta. College baseball reigning national Freshman of the Year settled down after that, and pitched into the 7th inning without allowing another. McKay ultimately picked up the victory to move to 6-1 on the season.

U of L was able to overcome an early 4-1 deficit thanks in large part to a pair of home runs off the bats of Corey Ray and Danny Rosenbaum. Blake Tiberi and Colin Lyman also drove in a pair of runs.

Game two of the three-game set will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. at Jim Patterson Stadium. It's Visionworks Family Fun Day, and kids in attendance will be invited to run the bases and get autographs on the field postgame. Plus, dollar hot dogs.