Clemson sweeps Louisville as Cards drop 4th straight ACC series

Just a short time ago, Louisville was in the mix for hosting a Regional and coasting through their season as many expected this team would do. Fast forward to today and this team will likely be on the outside looking in when the Field of 64 projections are released later this week by D1 Baseball and Baseball America.

After the sweep by Clemson, Louisville has lost four straight conference series and are 2-10 in ACC games during that span. Not only are they in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament, but they are also currently 12th in the ACC standings and would fall to 13th if Georgia Tech holds on and beats Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon. The 13th and 14th teams in the standings do not qualify for the ACC Tournament later this month in Durham.

For the third consecutive game, the Cardinals offense managed just three runs on their way to a 7-3 defeat on get away day. After totaling just 7 hits combined in the first two games against the Tigers, the offense was able to square up on the ball on Sunday with 9, but continued to lack that one big hit to shift the momentum from the Clemson dugout.

Christian Knapczyk (2-3, RBI, R), Eddie King Jr. (2-4, 2B, RBI), and Logan Beard (2-3, RBI, R) each paced the offensive with two hits apiece while King Jr. recorded the only extra base hit for the Cards. Louisville batters recorded 13 strikeouts and were 2-12 (.167) with runners in scoring position.

It was a staff-day on the mound with Tucker Biven (L, 0-2) getting the start on Sunday afternoon. Biven tossed the first 2.1 innings, allowing 3 earned runs while striking out one and walking one.

Evan Webster, Greg Farone, Will Koger, Kade Grundy, Kayden Campbell, Alex Galvan, and Patrick Forbes would each see action out of the bullpen.

Unfortunately, it is not going to get any easier for the Cards as they host No. 5 Vanderbilt on Tuesday night before heading to Charlottesville for a three-game series with No. 21 Virginia next weekend. The Commodores just lost a series to Alabama and Virginia has lost 7 of their last 9 conference games. Both teams are going to be hungry as they are battling to improve their resume heading into Selection Monday.