Louisville thumps Vanderbilt in Battle of the Barrel

The middle innings proved disastrous for Vanderbilt, as the Commodores fell 7-2 to Louisville at Jim Patterson Stadium in Louisville, Ky., on Tuesday afternoon.

The Cardinals had just five hits, but they came at the right time as they left just two men on base. Louisville scored two in the fourth and four in the fifth, which proved to be enough.

Vanderbilt out-hit Louisville, 6-5, but left nine runners on.

Louisville stars Alex Binelas and Henry Davis both homered.

Dominic Keegan and Spencer Jones homered for Vanderbilt (32-10), which is now in a three-game losing streak for the first time since 2018.

The Commodores hadn't lost consecutive games all season until losing the last two at Florida over the weekend. Vandy also suffered its first mid-week loss since 2019.

Freshman Christian Little took the loss, going five innings while allowing six runs, all earned.

Little was one of four freshmen who threw. Davis hit his off Donye Evans, who faced just one hitter.

Vanderbilt took a 1-0 lead on Keegan's homer in the top of the fourth, but it quickly fell apart from there.

Jones's home run was the first of his career.

It'll probably be a long bus ride home given the way things unfolded Monday.

The stat that illustrated how it went best is this: Louisville held a 6-1 lead through five despite collecting just four hits, two walks and a hit batsman.

Little gave up a soft single to left to Davis to start the fourth, then hit Binelas in the foot. A sacrifice bunt moved both men over and a ground-out got one in, and a wild pitch, the next.

Little then walked Levi Usher to start the fifth. No. 9 hitter Christian Knapczyk then grounded to Keegan at first. Keegan had an easy out had he chosen to take it to first himself, but turned to second, where it looked like a tough play to get the speedy Usher. The ball got stuck in Keegan's glove, the throw was late, and Louisville had two on with nobody out.

Shortstop Carter Young made a terrific play on a ground ball to cut Usher down at the plate. But Little sailed a pickoff throw into center to move two into scoring position.

Little then balked both runners up a base, and Luke Brown followed with a two-run single. After a ground-out, Binelas hit a belt-high pitch that caught too much plate into Indiana, and the Cardinals had a five-run lead.

Other than Joens's pinch-hit home run in the eighth, there wasn't much good news other than Nelson Berkwich, who threw two perfect innings in the sixth and seventh.

The freshman lefty hasn't throw much--just 4 1/3 innings coming in--but had good command of a fastball that hit 94, as well as his off-speed stuff.

Berkwich has a deceptive delivery and could come in handy down the stretch for a pitching staff that's getting thin on quality depth.

Vanderbilt has just three lefties who've thrown pitches this season, with lefty Hunter Owen (who also threw Tuesday) leading the bunch with 14 innings. Senior Hugh Fisher, who didn't pitch Tuesday, has thrown 8 1/3.