A four-run second inning for Indiana proved to be the difference as the No. 2 Louisville baseball team saw its 15-game winning streak halted with a 4-3 road loss to the Hoosiers on Tuesday night at Bart Kaufman Field.
Indiana (30-19-2) scored four runs, including one unearned run, on two hits and one Cardinals (46-7) error to gain an early lead before holding off Louisville down the stretch for the victory in the final non-conference regular season game for both teams. The 15-game winning streak was the second longest of the season for the Cardinals, which opened 2017 with 19 straight victories.
Despite rallying for three runs to narrow the deficit to a single run, Louisville never found its stride offensively connecting for only five hits and registering 11 strikeouts in defeat. Josh Stowers homered and walked once, Logan Taylor chipped in with a RBI double and Tyler Fitzgerald added a single, two walks and scored once as no Cardinals player had more than one hit in the game.
Matt Gorski started the scoring for the Hoosiers in the decisive second inning with his two-run double down the left field to plate Craig Dedelow and Logan Sowers. Ryan Fineman followed with a RBI double to send Gorski home before a two-out error from the Cardinals later in the inning allowed the fourth run of the inning to score.
Louisville broke through for its first run of the evening in the third as Stowers led off the inning with a solo home run off Andrew Saalfrank. Stowers belted a 2-1 offering sending it over the left field wall and beyond the Hoosiers bullpen for his fourth round-tripper of the season.
The Cardinals narrowed the gap to 4-3 in the fifth inning on a two-run double from Taylor to score Colin Lyman and Fitzgerald. Lyman led off the inning with a triple down the right field line and Fitzgerald earned a one-out walk before Taylor drove both players in with his 11th double of the season.
However, that was as close as Louisville would get after managing only one bunt single and one walk over the final four innings of the game. The bullpen kept the Cardinals in the game as sophomore Bryan Hoeing (1.2 innings), freshman Adam Elliott (1.1 innings), freshman Shay Smiddy (2.1 innings) and junior Chandler Dale (0.2 innings) combined for six shutout innings to close the game.
Up next, No. 2 Louisville returns home to close the regular season with a weekend series against Florida State, which begins Thursday at 6 p.m., ET at Jim Patterson Stadium.
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Garett Wall
Assistant Sports Information Director
