Louisville (30-13, 12-9 ACC) is set to come down the stretch on their 2025 regular season, facing Eastern Kentucky in a midweek game before traveling to South Bend, IN to face Notre Dame.
Let’s take a look at last week’s results and preview this week’s upcoming opponents for Louisville.
Last Week in Cliff Notes
Last week started very rough for Louisville. The Cardinals dropped a 17-5 loss to Kentucky in seven innings, marking the fourth time since 2017 that Louisville and UK split their regular season games against each other (though it should be noted that both teams played each other once in 2022, 2023, and 2024).
Louisville then dropped a 10-2 loss in the opening game of the Florida State series, before rebounding to win the next two games on scores of 9-4 and 14-2. Louisville rallied from a 4-0 deficit after the first inning to score nine unanswered in game two of the series, also setting a new single-game program record with 14 stolen bases.
The 14-2 win came in seven innings on walk-off fashion, as Lucas Moore hit a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh to force a run-rule victory (part of a seven-run rally in that inning).
Read more: Around the Bases: EKU and Notre DameNotable Statistics
Following Louisville’s upset series win over Florida State, the Cardinals are once again a consensus Top 25 team. Louisville re-entered both the NCBWA Top 25 and the Perfect Game polls at #18 this week, while being as high as 17th on both the D1baseball.com and Baseball America polls. They are also 20th in this week’s USA Today poll.
Lucas Moore‘s walk-off on Sunday was a book-end to another strong week for the sophomore. He finished 2-for-5 with six RBIs in the 14-2 win over Florida State, and batted 9-for-17 (.529) with eight RBIs, five stolen bases, two home runs, and a triple. Moore has remained one of the best players in the ACC, leading Louisville in batting average (.376) and stolen bases (33), to go with eight doubles, four home runs, and 33 RBIs.
Moore had four stolen bases in Louisville’s 9-4 win over Florida State, as did Zion Rose. Michael Lippe had a great series against Florida State, batting 5-for-10 (.500) with three RBIs, two doubles, and a triple. In 30 games played (with eight starts), Lippe is averaging .324 with four RBIs and seven stolen bases. Kamau Neighbors also had a strong series, batting 4-for-10 (.400) with three RBIs and a double.
Louisville’s pitching has continued to be up-and-down through recent weeks, having another week where opponents scored ten or more runs in multiple games. But Louisville had some strong performances from the bullpen on Saturday and Sunday. Justin West and Jake Schweitzer combined for 4.2 shutout innings and allowed three combined hits in the 9-4 win over FSU. Schweitzer has remained one of the steadiest arms in Louisville’s bullpen, holding a 3-0 record with a 2.08 ERA, allowing .152 at the plate in 13 appearances. TJ Schlageter and Brennyn Cutts combined for 4.2 shutout innings with two combined hits in the 14-2 win over FSU on Sunday.
Tucker Biven made his first start of the 2025 season on Sunday, allowing two earned runs in 2.1 innings of work. Prior to Sunday, Biven had not given up an earned run in his prior four outings (vs. Kentucky, at NC State, vs. Western Kentucky, and at Clemson), pitching 4.2 innings with three combined hits in that stretch. For the season, Biven has a 5.82 ERA and 2.82 WHIP to go with a 2-0 record.
Opponent Outlook: EKU Colonels
EKU comes into today with an 8-36 record, and have only won one game on the road this season.
As a team, EKU is averaging just .226 at the plate, which is 296th out of 299 Division I schools (as of April 28th). They are also 298th in scoring (3.7 runs per game), and 296th in on-base percentage (.328). Diego Alana leads the team in batting (.299). AJ Groeneveld (.292 batting, five doubles, ten RBIs) is coming off a strong week, batting 7-for-11 (.636) with a double against Dayton and Lipscomb.
Pitching has not had much better luck for the Colonels, either. EKU is 251st in ERA (7.75) and is allowing .297 at the plate with 81 stolen bases and 56 home runs allowed. Expect names such as Christian Howe (0-1, 8.44 ERA in 13 appearances) and Hayden Collins (1-1, 5.06 ERA in 12 appearances) to potentially make appearances on the mound.
Opponent Outlook: Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame enters this week riding an eight-game win streak, and will take on rival Purdue before hosting Louisville this weekend. The Fighting Irish (24-17) have recently swept both Stanford and Cal in their last two weekend series.
Notre Dame has a decent team ERA of 5.39 (11th out of 16 ACC schools), and starting pitcher Jack Radel (5-3, 4.33 ERA) earned ACC Pitcher of the Week honors on Monday. Radel had a career-high 12 strikeouts and four hits (one earned run) in seven innings of work as Notre Dame had an 8-1 win over Cal on Friday. Rory Fox (2-3, 3.30 ERA) has had back-to-back shutouts in his last two starts, including a complete game performance where he had six strikeouts in seven innings of work during an 11-0 win over Stanford on April 19th.
The Irish have some pieces in the bullpen that could give Louisville fits, including Tobey McDonough (2-0, 1.82 ERA, six saves in 14 appearances) and Brady Koester (2-0, 3.60 ERA in 12 appearances). Ricky Reeth (2-2, 4.75 ERA, three saves in 16 appearances) and Sammy Cooper (2.57 ERA in ten appearances) could also make appearances this weekend.
Notre Dame is averaging .263 at the plate, the lowest among 16 ACC schools. However, they have four guys averaging over .300 individually, including Carson Tinney (.336, nine doubles, 11 home runs, 40 RBIs) and Bino Watters (.300, nine doubles, eight home runs, 34 RBIs). Tinney earned both ACC Player of the Week and NCBWA National Co-Hitter of the Week honors for his efforts against Stanford, where he hit .750 with two doubles, four home runs, and seven RBIs in the weekend series against the Cardinal. Tinney also leads the team in home runs, RBIs, batting average, and slugging.
How to Watch / Listen:
The start time for today’s game against EKU was moved up to 2 p.m. ET, and will be available on both ACC Network Extra and 970 AM.
Louisville’s series against Notre Dame will start on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, with Friday and Saturday’s games at 6:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively. Thursday’s game will air live on ACC Network, with Friday and Saturday’s games on ACC Network Extra. All three games will also air on 93.9 The Ville and 970 AM.
