Louisville Baseball Travels to Lexington for Battle of the Bluegrass

Coming off a head-scratching series loss to Pittsburgh over the weekend, the Cards will travel to Lexington this evening to take on their in-state rival. Louisville (21-7, 7-2 ACC) is 6-1 in midweek games this season while Kentucky (18-11, 3-6 SEC) is 4-4 during midweek tilts, losing to powerhouses like WKU, EKU, and Ohio.

The Cards and Cats play a home-and-home every season, with the return game at Jim Patterson Stadium coming on April 19th.

Statistically, Louisville is better than Kentucky in nearly every offensive category. The Cards have a better batting average, OPS, slugging percentage, have scored more runs, tallied more home runs, triples, and stolen bases. But it’s a rivalry game and anything can happen.

The Cards are ranked by all six major publications. Kentucky isn’t ranked in a single one.

Louisville is 12-3 vs. Kentucky in their last 15 meetings.

The Cards pitching staff will need to keep tabs on Chase Estep, the Wildcats third baseman, who is having an All-American season. Estep was named National Player of the Week a few weeks go by both Perfect Game and Collegiate Baseball. He has the ability to change the game in one swing of the bat.

With just three hitters in the lineup above .300, he doesn’t have a huge supporting cast around him. But if you remember correctly, Louisville let Ryan Ritter, the Kentucky shortstop, beat them single handedly last season. Anything can happen in this game.

It would not surprise me if we see 20+ runs scored tonight. Both pitching staffs have struggled at times time season, Louisville (4.82 ERA) has a slight advantage over Kentucky (5.12 ERA), but neither are anything to brag about.

The teams have not announced the starters for tonight as of yet, but I presume we will see multiple arms from each bullpen.

First pitched is scheduled for 6:30 PM at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington. The game will be televised on SECN+.

L’s Up.