OMAHA, NE. — Louisville baseball‘s road to the College World Series wasn’t an easy one, so it only makes sense that its CWS opener would be a thriller.
With their offense sputtering for much of the game, the Cardinals battled their way back from a late 3-1 deficit to tie the game against Oregon State in the top of the ninth. But Gavin Turley’s game-winning RBI double allowed the Beavers to earn the 4-3 victory on Friday at Charles Schwab Field.
The Cardinals (40-23) have now lost the first game of the CWS in five of their six appearances in Omaha and will have to work their way back through the elimination bracket.
“We’ve been knocked on the mat a lot this year, but we have always gotten up,” U of L coach Dan McDonnell said. “When you come from Louisville, Kentucky, and you have a Muhammad Ali uniform, you talk a lot of boxing. You’re going to get knocked down, especially with these teams. I’m as confident as I think as a coach should be and just looking forward to getting out there playing Sunday.”
Louisville’s defense made timely plays to avoid Oregon State (48-14-1) from blowing the game open, but its offense couldn’t string together timely hits. Kamau Neighbors, who had the game-tying RBI base hit, scored the team’s first run in the top of the sixth inning before the Cardinals’ two-run ninth inning.
It’s only the second time in the last month that the Cardinals have scored fewer than five runs in a game.
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Here are three takeaways from Louisville’s College World Series loss to Oregon State:
As a team, Louisville batted .250. Jake Munroe had two of the team’s nine hits and the first RBI for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals erased OSU’s lead in the ninth inning. Zion Rose led off with a triple. He then scored on Tague Davis’ single for a one-score game before Alex Alicea, who got to third base on two OSU errors, scored on Neighbors’ single. But the Cardinals’ offense was stagnant to start the game with OSU pitcher Dax Whitney, who was the No. 56 prospect in the 2024 MLB Draft, striking out nine in 5 â…“ innings.
“I had heard how good Whitney was; I just had never seen him,” McDonnell said. “But it was one of those, ‘Hey, coach, this guy was a first-rounder out of high school if he wanted to sign. But unfortunately for us, he chose to go to Oregon State. … We know he had it (breaking ball). We were just hoping he wasn’t going to land it as well as he did, the breaking balls, because, really, he was throwing multiple pitches there.”
While the Cardinals acknowledged the shadows also affected their performance, Munroe shouldered the blame.
“We could have done a lot better as a group,” he said. “So, hats off to them (Oregon State). But as hitters we know that game won’t happen again. It’s just a rare occurrence that our pitchers keep us in for that long and we don’t help them out a little bit more.”
Louisville pitcher Patrick Forbes went through the Beavers’ lineup in the first three innings, fanning five batters.
“Really just trying to get ahead,” Forbes said of his approach on the mound. “The slider was good late in the count. Just kind of trying to get them in between the fastball and slider. That was working to get some swing and miss. They put some good swings on some balls. Give them credit. I tried to keep us in it, let the offense come back. But that’s baseball.”
The second time around in the order, Oregon State got the better of him to start the fourth. The Cardinals allowed hits to the first two batters, Trent Caraway and Aiva Arquette. Both of them scored to give Oregon State the first lead of the game, 2-0. The Beavers had four hits during the inning and left two on base.
During the top half of the inning, Munroe and Eddie King Jr. each tallied two-out base hits but couldn’t score after Whitney posted his ninth strikeout.
Forbes gave up two hits and walked a batter to load the bases with one out during the sixth inning, when Justin West came in to relieve him. Oregon State scored a run after Alicea fumbled the ball for a potential double play. It was only Alicea’s fourth error of the season, but it was costly as AJ Singer crossed home plate to put the Beavers up, 3-1.
West struck out the next two batters to end the inning, leaving the bases loaded. It dropped OSU to 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
The Cardinals dropped to the elimination bracket and will play Arizona at 2 p.m. ET Sunday. The Wildcats dropped a 7-4 decision to Coastal Carolina to start the College World Series.
Reach Louisville football, women’s basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.
