Alabama Baseball Falls to No. 5 Louisville, 6-0

The No. 5 ranked Louisville Cardinals scored all six of their runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to post a 6-0 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday afternoon from Jim Patterson Stadium. With the loss, the Crimson Tide falls to 8-6 overall, while the Cardinals improve to 11-2 overall.

Locked in a pitcher’s duel through six and a half innings, the Cardinals broke a scoreless game open with a six-run seventh. After throwing six scoreless innings, Alabama starter Jon Keller allowed a leadoff single to Cole Sturgeon to open the Louisville seventh then after Sturgeon stolen second, Keller had a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt to put runners on the corners with no outs.

Keaton Haack entered for Keller and struck out the first batter he faced, but Louisville followed with back-to-back singles to Sutton Whiting and Kyle Gibson to score three times. After a groundout plated another run, Louisville got a walk and a two-run double by Alex Chittenden to cap the scoring, as the Cardinals batted around in the seventh.

Louisville starting pitcher Jeff Thompson improved to 4-0 on the season after throwing seven scoreless innings, allowing just two hits with a pair of walks and four strikeouts. Keller (2-2) finished the day with six innings pitched, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts, but took the loss.

Offensively, Alabama’s two hits came from Brett Booth and Kenny Roberts as both had singles in the game. Georgie Salem had a walk in four plate appearances and has reached base safely in all 14 games this season. Jake Hubbard threw the final 1.1 innings for the Tide, allowing two hits with a walk and a strikeout.

The Cardinals had eight hits in the contest as Sturgeon and Gibson led the way with two hits each. Adam Engel was 1-for-3 with two RBI, a run scored and three stolen bases, Chittenden was 1-for4 with two RBI and Whiting was 1-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.

Louisville reliever Dace Kime completed the shutout, throwing two hitless and scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts.

The first threat in the game came in the Louisville second, when two singles had runners on the corners with one out, but Keller struck out the next two swinging to end the inning.

Alabama’s best chance to score came in the third inning. After Andrew Miller and Mikey White were hit by pitches to put runners on first and second with two out, Ben Moore grounded out to end the threat.

Game three of the series between Alabama and No. 5 Louisville will begin at noon CST, from Jim Patterson Stadium on Sunday. The Tide will start sophomore RHP Spencer Turnbull (0-1, 3.77) and the Cardinals will open with sophomore RHP Jared Ruxer (0-0, 2.51).