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| Pitching |
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| W- Holland (8-0) |
2.0
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1
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1
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1
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0
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2
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| L- Quackenbush (2-5) |
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| SV - Mathis (1) |
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| Batting Leaders |
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| USF - Llerna |
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| UL- Wunderlich |
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CLEARWATER, Fla. - Facing a 7-1 deficit after six innings, the University of South Florida baseball team (26-32) rallied with six unanswered runs capped by a game-tying two-out, full-count solo home run in the bottom of the ninth, but the nationally ranked Louisville Cardinals used a two-run homer in the top of the 11th to sneak by the Bulls and advance to the next round of the BIG EAST Tournament.
The loss eliminates the Bulls from the 2010 BIG EAST Championships.
After falling behind 0-2 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Luis Llerena battled back to a full count and sent the game into extra innings as the Hialeah, Fla. native hit his first home run of his collegiate career to even the game 7-7 off Louisville closer Neil Holland, one of the best relievers in the country who came into the game with 16 saves.
Kevin Quackenbush (2-5) tossed 6.0 innings for his longest outing of his career. The righty hurled 80 pitches with his lone mistake being the long ball to Stewart Ijames in the top of the 11th to suffer his fifth loss of the season.
No. 9 Louisville, the 2010 BIG EAST regular season champs, opened a 5-0 lead through 2.5 innings.
After a 56 minute rain delay following the completion of the fifth inning, USF came out and completely shutdown a Louisville line up that scored seven runs over the first five innings.
USF got on the board thanks to a sacrifice fly from Junior Carlin in the Bulls portion of the third and then used another sacrifice fly this time by Andrew Longley to make it 7-2 after six innings.
The Bulls out hit the Cardinals 14-11 in the game but the difference was Louisville made the Bulls first three pitchers pay for the issuing of seven free passes. In 6.0 innings of work, Quackenbush did not walk a batter.
Heading into the home portion of the eighth inning, the Bulls trailed 7-2. They rallied to put up a four spot and cut the Cardinal lead to 7-6.
An RBI double by Jonathan Koscso scratched across the first run the inning followed by a wild pitch to score Andrew Longley.
Sophomore Sam Mende capped off the inning with a two-run bomb into the party-deck in left field of Bright House Field, which cut the Louisville advantage to one.
After being held hitless through the first two games of the tournament, Mende broke out with four hits while Llerena continued his hot hitting in the BIG EAST Tourney by collecting another four hits after going 3-for-4 last night against West Virginia raising his average to .344 on the season.
The Bulls squandered a number of scoring of opportunities early as USF left 13 runners on base.
Game Notes
Senior Teddy Kaufman was scheduled to get the start on the mound but was a late scratch due to discomfort in his pitch arm from the injury which kept him out for the better part of two months... Play was halted before the start of the sixth inning due to incoming weather... The delay lasted 56 minutes...
