Offensive outburst leads Louisville past East Carolina in NCAA Super Regional opener

The first time through the lineup, East Carolina ace Jake Agnos had the Louisville hitters off balance.  

The left-handed American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year had four strikeouts and had not given up a hit.  

Louisville’s offense had no life. 

With one out in the bottom of the fourth, the Cardinals came alive on a Logan Wyatt double. On the next at-bat, Tyler Fitzgerald gave Louisville a second wind.  

His double down the left-field line scored Wyatt and gave the Cardinals an early lead. As he landed on second base he did a jumping pirouette and came down with a scream and a chest pump.  

From there, Louisville never wavered as it routed East Carolina 14-1 in the first game of the NCAA Super Regional. 

“I think it’s big to jump on them early,” Fitzgerald said. “To get that energy first and that momentum first is important in games like this. To be able to come through for my team, I was pumped up.” 

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Louisville is hardly ever short on zeal. Most glances toward the dugout can catch water being thrown around, arms flailing and a lot of celebrating.  

“It’s been a pretty high-energy dugout. I’m going to try and be careful with my adjectives here. They are just excited. They are really excited,” U of L coach Dan McDonnell said. “We seem to get a warning or two every once in awhile, for good reason, they are just getting a little too close to the field. It’s college baseball.

"When you watch the big leagues and see how those guys act in the postseason, I always say, and I have a lot of respect for the big leaguers, but when you watch the postseason they play like college kids. College, our kids play like this most of the time, but especially in the postseason.”  

From the moment Fitzgerald brought Wyatt home, Louisville never wavered.  

The Cardinals scored four runs in that inning with a Danny Oriente three-RBI double coming two batters after Fitzgerald’s double.  

U of L scored at least two runs in the next three innings, including a five-run fifth inning. Jake Snider highlighted the fifth inning with a two-RBI double. Snider and Oriente led the team with three RBIs each.  

Agnos, who entered the game with an 11-2 record and a 2.02 ERA, said it’s hard to slow down the Cardinals when they get going at the plate.  

“It’s one of the best offenses in the country,” Agnos said. “It’s hard to stop a team that has the momentum.”  

Louisville’s 14 runs on 18 hits came without a home run and were the most runs the Pirates have given up since March 29, 2018.  

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While the U of L hitters built a large lead throughout the middle innings, Reid Detmers shut down the Pirates completely.  

Other than working out of trouble in the first and third innings, Detmers kept the East Carolina hitters on their heels.  

The sophomore left-hander pitched seven innings giving up five total hits, including a home run in the sixth inning. The program's single-season strikeout record holder also became the national leader in strikeouts during the game.

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Detmers struck out six batters, pushing his total to 162 on the year. He may lose that lead when Mississippi State’s Ethan Small takes the mound this weekend, but Detmers isn’t thinking about that anyway.  

“It’s cool but I have other stuff to worry about right now,” he said.  

What Detmers, and the rest of the team, are worried about is closing out the series.  

When the teams take the field Saturday at noon, it won’t be the first time East Carolina will face elimination.  

The Pirates, like the Cardinals, won their regional after making a loser’s bracket run.

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“For a program that talks a lot about Omaha, that’s not what we are talking about right now,” he said. “... We say it a lot, but just ‘Be where your feet are.’ Just play the game. We talk about being humble and hungry. They are mature enough to know it doesn’t matter what happened today, win big, lose big, win by a little, lose by a little, in baseball you have to turn the page and come ready to play tomorrow.”  

Starters have yet to be announced for either team, but Louisville is expected to start either Bobby Miller or Nick Bennett.