Devin Hairston’s two-out single to left field in the 10th inning scored Justin Lavey to complete the comeback and lift the No. 2 Louisville baseball team to a 6-5 walk-off win against the Miami RedHawks on Tuesday night at Jim Patterson Stadium.
Facing a five-run deficit in the middle of the sixth inning, the Cardinals (39-6) scored the final six runs of the game and earned their second walk-off victory of the season. Louisville, which earned a 3-2 walk-off win in 13 innings against Eastern Michigan on March 4, won in its final at-bat for the fourth time in 2017 while also extending its winning streak to eight games overall.
Lavey led off the decisive 10th inning when he was hit by a 2-2 pitch from Spencer Mraz. After advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt from Logan Taylor, Lavey was driven home when Hairston sent a 1-1 offering into left field allowing the freshman infielder to side head first and touch the plate just ahead of the tag from Miami catcher Hayden Senger.
The 10th inning single was the only hit of the night for Hairston, who has driven in the game-winning run in both of Louisville’s walk-off wins this season and three of the four last at-bat victories. Hairston also the a game-winning RBI single in the walk-off win against Kentucky in 2016 and delivered the game-clinching RBI in two last at-bat wins during the 2015 season.
Devin Mann paced the Cardinals at the plate on Tuesday as the sophomore infielder was 3-for-4 with a double, one stolen base and two RBI. Lavey was 2-for-3 with a walk and one RBI to go with scoring the game-winning run, while Drew Ellis had two doubles and scored twice. Colin Lyman chipped in with two hits and two runs, and Brendan McKay delivered his team-leading 14th home run.
Junior righthander Lincoln Henzman registered three strikeouts in 1.2 innings of perfect relief to earn the win and move to 2-0 on the season. Sophomore righty Sam Border added three strikeouts without allowing a run in 2.1 innings out of the bullpen to extend his scoreless streak to 28.0 innings.
The RedHawks (19-27) gained a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the first as Tyler Harris reached base on an error and was driven home later in the inning on a two-out RBI single by Landon Stephens. Miami extended the lead to 3-0 with a pair of runs in the third inning, including a second unearned run. Stephens delivered another two-out RBI single to plate Harris against for the first run, while a throwing error allowed Ross Haffey to score the second run of the inning.
The deficit for the Cardinals increased to 5-0 in the top of the sixth after Will Vogelgesang connected for a two-out, two-run single to right field to score Cal Elvers and Dallas Hall. Louisville answered in the bottom of the inning with its first two runs of the game. Ellis doubled down the left field line before scoring on a RBI single through the right side by Mann for the first run. Lavey drove in the second run with his RBI single to left so send Lyman home.
The Cardinals pulled closer in the seventh connecting for a pair of runs on three hits to narrow the gap to 5-4. McKay kicked off the scoring in the inning when he walloped a 3-1 offering from Grant Hartwig sending it over the wall in center for his 24th career home run. After another double down the left field line from Ellis, Mann drove him home again with another RBI single, this time to left field.
Louisville erased the deficit by scoring in its third straight inning and evened the total at 5-5 in the eighth when Lyman scored from third on a wild pitch by Ryan Marske. Lyman led off the inning with a single to right center before advancing to third on a single to left by Lavey. After replacing Hartwig on the mound, Marske’s first pitch to Taylor sailed to the backstop allowing the game-tying run to score.
Up next, No. 2 Louisville returns to the road for a weekend series at Notre Dame starting Friday at 6:05 p.m., ET. The Cardinals and Fighting Irish are also slated for Saturday at 4:05 p.m., and Sunday at 1:05 p.m.
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Garett Wall
Assistant Sports Information Director