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Tuesday, Jun. 02, 2009

Louisville advances to super regionals

LOUISVILLE — A pair of freshmen propelled Louisville back into the NCAA baseball super regionals.

Ryan Wright hit the go-ahead home run and Tony Zych was solid over six innings to lead Louisville to 5-3 win over Vanderbilt on Monday night in the deciding game of the Louisville Regional.

Zych (6-2), a 6-foot-3 right-hander who was making only his third start of the season, gave up two earned runs on four hits as the Cardinals (47-16) — the top seed in the regional — advanced to the super regional for the second time in three seasons.

"I don't know if I've ever been as happy as I am right now," said Louisville Coach Dan McDonnell, whose team advanced to the College World Series in 2007.

Louisville, the Big East Conference champion, will travel to Cal State Fullerton (45-14), the overall No. 2 seed, for the super regional beginning Friday.

Right fielder Wright went 2-for-4 and hit his go-ahead home run in the fourth inning.

"I didn't feel any more pressure tonight than I had in any of the other games," said Wright, who entered the game 1-for-10 in the regional.

Vanderbilt freshman designated hitter Aaron Westlake gave the Commodores (37-27) a 1-0 lead with a solo home run to straightaway center in the bottom of the second inning off of Zych, who also earned the win for Louisville in the Big East Tournament final.

The Cardinals, who entered the NCAA Tournament having won 14 of 16 and scoring 10.5 runs per game in that span, tallied only seven runs in their previous two games — a 3-2 win over Middle Tennessee on Saturday and a 8-4 loss to Vanderbilt on Sunday night.

But Louisville's offense got rolling in the fourth. With two on and two out, Wright launched Mike Minor's offering over the right field fence.

"He had been getting everyone on the team out with changeups so far," Wright said. "Honestly I was looking for a changeup, (but) he left it in the middle of the plate, belt-high, and I was lucky I didn't miss it."

Minor (6-6) was pitching on only two days rest. He was the loser in Vanderbilt's regional-opening game against Middle Tennessee.

"Ryan Wright's at-bat has to be the biggest at-bat of the tournament," McDonnell said. "As offensive as we are, we hadn't really put it together yet (in the regional)."

Joe Loftus, Vanderbilt's ninth hitter, homered in the fifth to pull the Commodores within 3-2, but an RBI-triple by Louisville's John Dao in the seventh pushed the Cardinals' lead back up to two runs. Louisville added another run in the eighth, on Chris Dominguez's RBI, thanks to a pair of Commodore errors.

"A couple of those mistakes bit us in the butt," said Vanderbilt Coach Tim Corbin, whose team had three miscues in the game. The Commodores scored once in the eighth. Jonathan White, who went 3-for-4, doubled to lead off. He later scored on Curt Casali's RBI-single.

Louisville ace starter Justin Marks, who won the Cardinals' first game of the regional, pitched a perfect ninth inning for his first save of the season.