Louisville (42-12) jumped to a huge lead early, getting most of their runs off four homers within the first two innings, and clinched their fourth ACC Atlantic Division title in five seasons with a resounding 14-1 win over Florida State (34-19).
The Cardinals also needed at least one win against the Seminoles to clinch a share of the ACC regular season title, and two to win it outright. U of L will have a chance tomorrow to clinch the regular season title with a win, as well as the #1 overall seed in the ACC Tournament.
Louisville got things going right away with four runs in the first inning. Logan Wyatt nailed a two-run homer to put the Cardinals up 2-0. Alex Binelas and Zach Britton followed it up with back-to-back home runs of their own, giving Louisville a 4-0 lead after one inning.
The second inning saw the Cardinals put up seven more runs. Justin Lavey scored after a throwing error by the third baseman allowed Jake Snider to reach base. Logan Wyatt’s RBI single added another run for Louisville, then Alex Binelas drilled his second home run of the day and brought in three more runs for Louisville. Drew Campbell capped off Louisville’s scoring with a two-RBI double, giving them a monstrous 11-0 lead after two innings.
Alex Binelas added another RBI on a groundout in the third inning, giving Louisville a 12-0 lead. He would bring in another run in the seventh inning via RBI sac fly to centerfield.
Louisville’s offense couldn’t sustain their momentum much after the three inning burst, but Reid Detmers delivered yet another quality start. The sophomore threw six shutout innings, only allowing four hits and tallying 11 strikeouts in the game. It marked the eighth time this season that Detmers threw 10+ strikeouts in a game, and has him eight strikeouts away from breaking Brendan McKay’s single-season record of 146.
With the win, Detmers also becomes the eighth pitcher in U of L history to record 11 wins. The sophomore needs two more to tie the single-season record of 13, set by Kyle Funkhouser in 2014.
Florida State was able to get on the board in the eighth inning, getting an RBI single from Robby Martin. But the Cardinals got a run back in the bottom of the eighth with Lucas Dunn’s RBI sac fly, scoring Ben Metzinger.
Logan Wyatt and Alex Binelas led the way for Louisville, with both batters contributing for seven of the team’s 11 RBIs. Wyatt finished 3-for-3 at the plate with three RBIs, one home run, and drew his 60th walk of the season. Binelas was 2-for-4 with five RBIs and two home runs, the second time that the freshman delivered multiple homers in a game in the last three weeks.
Lucas Dunn (2-for-5), Henry Davis (2-for-4), and Justin Lavey (2-for-3) all had multi-hit games for Louisville. Lavey, along with Drew Campbell (1-for-3, two RBIs) and Jake Snider (1-for-4) also had doubles.
Mike Salvatore led Florida State with two hits in three at-bats. Robby Martin (2-for-4) and J.C. Flowers (1-for-3) also recorded a hit, with Martin delivering the only RBI for the Seminoles.
Game two of the series between the Cardinals and the Seminoles starts at 6 p.m. on Friday. The series, as well as Louisville’s regular season, concludes on Saturday at 1 p.m. EDT.
