Louisville baseball: Cards' offense fueling bounce back season

Louisville baseball has been on a mission to bounce back strong from the disappointing campaign from 2021. It’s one specific part of the game that has the Cards back in a major way.

After finishing last season with an underwhelming 28-22 record, a loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament and missing out on a bid to the Regional Tournament, expectations for Louisville baseball coming into this season were very low. In the ACC preseason polls, Louisville was predicted to finish fourth in the Atlantic Division of the conference. Well, it seems that the players and coaches have heard the noise and boy have they had something to say about it so far this season.

Thirty six games into the season, the Cards are already only three wins away from matching their win total from last year with a promising 25-11 record so far this season, and a 9-6 record in conference play. Those records currently have the Cards ranked 16th nationally, and at the number one spot in the Atlantic division of the ACC. Their strong play so far this season has been highlighted with a weekend sweep over, then number one in the country, Notre Dame, a series victory of two games to one over, then ranked twentieth in the country, North Carolina. And of course, the recent win over arch-rival Kentucky.

Slugging Season

The main reason for the Cardinals amazing start to the season is the red-hot offense. The team’s batting average this season is .321, with 60 home runs, 339 total runs scored, and 65 stolen bases on the year. If you know anything about baseball, then you’d be able to tell that those numbers are pretty freaking good.

They are also really good hitting in clutch situations. They have multiple walk-offs this season, including two Ben Metzinger walk-off home runs and a couple of walk-off base hits by others. One prominent example of their clutch hitting this season was during their final game of the series against North Carolina this past weekend. Down 5-3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Jack Payton hit a 2 RBI single to tie it and send it into extra innings, where Louisville ended up walking it off in the bottom of the fourteenth inning with an Isaac Humphrey single with the bases loaded.

When six out of the nine guys in the lineup are hitting above .300, it is hard to pick out just a few impact players to highlight, but it is hard to ignore the impact that Ben Metzinger, and Cameron Masterman have had on the teams success this season. Metzinger, the hometown hero from Trinity High School, is batting .324 this year and leads the team in RBI’s (42), Slugging percentage (.676), total bases (100), and home runs (14), and is in the top five in numerous other offensive categories.

Metzinger has always been a guy to come in and get a job done when called upon throughout his whole career, and seeing him get significant playing time and continue to rise to the occasion is really fun to see. Masterman has also been a big contributor to this teams insanely good offense this season. He has a .318 batting average on the season, with a .649 slugging percentage, 43 RBI’s, 96 total bases, and 13 home runs. He is second in most of those categories, only behind Metzinger.

The Cardinals continue their journey back into the College World Series with a weekend series at home against North Carolina State They’ll look to bounce back following a devastating weekend sweep against #19 Florida State.

Hopefully they can keep the bats going, because it has been a lot of fun to watch.