Louisville baseball likely fittingly ended its season by surrendering a 6-0 lead against Clemson in the ACC Tournament.
Louisville baseball entered its ACC tournament matchup against Clemson with a must-win mentality.
If the Cards wanted any shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA Regional Tournament, they would need to take this game. Right out of the gate, you could feel the sense of urgency from the team.
The Cards got off to a hot start in the top of the first when JT Benson drove one over the wall in right-center to give the Cards a 1-0 lead just three pitches into the game.
The offense kept the momentum going in the top of the second. Gavin Kilen doubled to center and was driven in by Luke Napleton, who smashed the first pitch he saw for the day 416 feet off the scoreboard to give the Cards a 3-0 lead.
Dylan Hoy continued the fun in the top of the second with an RBI double to extend the lead to 4-0.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Gongora came out of the gates strong for Louisville baseball. He recorded five strikeouts in the first two innings while only giving up one hit in that span.
Humphrey led off the top of the third with a four-pitch walk, advanced to second on a passed ball, and then to third on an Eddie King Jr. deep flyout to left.
Next, Humphry scored on a sharp groundout by Kilen, making it a 5-0 Cards advantage. Dylan Hoy later drove in Logan Beard on an RBI double in the top of the fourth to make it 6-0.
Gongora kept his stellar performance going. Although he only recorded one strikeout after the second inning, he only gave up two runs in his 5.2 innings of work and gave the Cards a great chance to win the game.
Louisville baseball held a 6-2 lead when Gongora exited the game with a runner on third and two outs in the sixth inning, and that’s when the whole complexion of the game changed.
Evan Webster came on in relief and into the box stepped Jacob Jarrell for the Tigers. On the third pitch of the at-bat, Jarrell blasted a 1-1 changeup 424 feet to left center field to get the Tigers within two runs.
The Cardinals responded by scratching a run across on a fielding error by Hinderleider to extend their lead back to three runs and make it a 7-4 ballgame.
However, Clemson’s comeback efforts continued in the bottom of the eighth. The first two batters reached via single and walk, ending Webster’s day. Jimmy Obertop for the Tigers stepped up to the plate to face Tucker Biven, who had just entered the game in relief of Webster. On the first pitch of the at bat he roped a line drive at 104 mph off the bat. The ball just barely escaped the yard in left and just like that, we had a tie ballgame at 7 apiece.
Biven bounced back strong after the homer, returning the next two hitters on strikeouts, and forcing a groundout to end the inning.
The Cards couldn’t get anything going on offense in the top of the ninth and Biven went back out to face the top of the Tigers’ order with the game on the line.
He retired the leadoff hitter for the first out of the inning, but that ended up being the last out the Cardinals would record on the day.
Jacob Hinderleider singled through the four-hole to give Clemson their first base runner of the inning. Blake Wright followed it up with a single of his own, and then Cam Cannarella followed that up with the inning’s third straight single to load the bases for Jimmy Obertop. Obertop stepped up to the plate and worked a four-pitch walk to score Hinderleider and walk off the Cardinals by a score of 8-7.
Louisville drops to 32-24 on the season, and their chances of a regional bid have dwindled.
The Cards will officially learn their fate this Monday at 12 p.m. ET, when the Division 1 Selection Show airs on ESPN2.
Notable Performances
Jimmy Obertop (Clemson)– 2-4, 2B, HR, 4Rbi’s
Obertop tied the game with a 3-run blast in the bottom of the 8th and then recorded the walk-off walk in the bottom of the 9th. Arguably the most important performance of the game.
Sebastian Gongora (Louisville)– 5.2 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Gongora attacked the zone for the entirety of his outing. He struck a lot of batters out early, and when he wasn’t recording strikeouts he found other ways to get hitters out and preserve the lead for Louisville baseball.
