OMAHA, Neb. – The Louisville baseball team is one of four teams remaining after a 4-3 walk-off victory over Mississippi State in an elimination game at the 2019 NCAA College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
Louisville (51-17) will now advance to take on Vanderbilt on Friday at 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT. The Cardinals will need two wins over the Commodores, one Friday and one Saturday, to advance to the championship series.
This marks the first time the Cardinals have won multiple games in a single College World Series. Louisville has won five consecutive elimination games this postseason, matching the program record also done in 2007.
“I’m super proud of these guys,” head coach Dan McDonnell said. “There was a lot of belief in that dugout. You could hear it in the tone and the comments and the words. They definitely felt like we had a chance. We just had to make it happen, and we were able to.”
Louisville entered the bottom of the ninth inning trailing 3-2 and just three outs away from the end of its season. Jake Snider battled through a seven-pitch at bat that ended with a walk to start the inning. The junior then advanced to second as a pickoff throw bounced away from the first baseman.
Facing a 1-2 count, Danny Oriente delivered the game-tying hit into left-centerfield that brought Snider to the plate. Drew Campbell then dug into the box and fouled off four pitches before lacing a line drive into right-centerfield to score Oriente and send the Cardinals spilling onto the field in celebration.
The victory was the fifth of the walk-off variety for the Cardinals this season, and second of the postseason with a walk-off in the regional final against Illinois State. Louisville had been just 1-16 this season when trailing entering the ninth, while Mississippi State (52-15) was previously 47-0 when leading after eight innings.
Reid Detmers (13-4) recorded the final out of the ninth inning for the Cardinals, tying the program’s single-season win record held by Kyle Funkhouser from 2014. The sophomore is once again tied for the national lead with 13 victories.
Nick Bennett took the ball first for the Cardinals on Thursday, tossing three scoreless innings before allowing a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. Bryan Hoeing gave up one run in 2.1 innings before turning it over to Garrett Schmeltz, who gave up a hit before getting a double play to end the seventh.
Jared Poland struck out four of the seven batters he faced across the eighth and ninth innings with Detmers stepping in for the last out of the ninth.
Mississippi State jumped in front with the two runs in the fourth and stretched it to 3-0 with a single in the seventh.
After being held scoreless through the first six innings, the Cardinals finally broke through in the seventh. Tyler Fitzgerald and Alex Binelas each worked walks to start the inning and Snider loaded the bases with an infield single. Campbell put the first run on the board with a run-scoring single to left and Justin Lavey cut the deficit to one with a fielder’s choice that scored Binelas.
Campbell was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs to lead the Louisville offense. Lucas Dunn had his 15th multi-hit game of the season with a 2-for-3 day.
