McDonnell's Omaha dream still strong despite loss
Cards run into 'buzzsaw' in California
By Howie Lindsey
Louisville flew to Fullerton, Calif., for the NCAA baseball Super Regional having already surpassed the level most fans and program observers expected. Despite losing three of its top five pitchers to injuries, UofL had regrouped to win the Big East regular-season and tournament championships and beat Indiana, MTSU and Vanderbilt to advance to the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament.
Despite already surpassing expectations, Louisville coach Dan McDonnell wanted to keep his squad focused on a possible trip to Omaha for the College World Series, a destination the Cardinals realized in 2007 in McDonnell's first season as coach. McDonnell wanted his players to believe they could make another run to Omaha.
But it took just a few innings to realize that knocking off the No. 2-seeded Fullerton Titans in a best-of-three series on their home field was going to be too much to ask for a Cardinals team with just one senior starter in the field.
Fullerton leaped ahead 3-0 in the first inning of Game 1 and never really looked back, sweeping Louisville 12-0 and 11-2 in Louisville's most lopsided losses of the season.
"I just want to congratulate Cal-State Fullerton," McDonnell said. "They are obviously a great team, and they are very hot right now. We just ran into a buzzsaw."
Fullerton looked spectacular in every way. The Titans outscored the Cardinals 23-2 and held UofL's normally live bats to a paltry .129 average.
"The way we're going right now is pretty special," Fullerton senior second baseman Joe Scott said.
And it was. The Titans looked unbeatable in two games that looked like mirror images of each other. It started with a tremendous performance by Fullerton ace Daniel Renken in Game 1.
Renken improved to 11-2 and certainly helped his already stellar 2.56 ERA with a complete-game, three-hit shutout. He kept Louisville guessing throughout the game, tying a career high with 10 strikeouts.
"It's pretty obvious what happened. Our tail was kicked tonight," McDonnell said. "We never got into a rhythm."
Of the Cardinals 27 outs, 10 were strikeouts and 14 were pop-ups. It was just the second time Louisville had failed to score a run this season. In fact, it was only the fourth time since McDonnell brought his agressive offensive system to Louisville that the Cardinals had been shut out.
Fullerton was just as dominant on offense, as Louisville starter Dean Keikhefer got off to a rough start. After his teammates went scoreless in the top of the first, Keikhefer gave up three runs on three hits while hitting two batters and allowing a pair of steals in the bottom half. It could have been worse, but Keikhefer struck out Joe Scott to strand runners on second and third.
Keikhefer then held Fullerton scoreless in the second and third, and he allowed a single run in the fourth. It was the fifth inning when Keikhefer's night went south again. He surrendered a leadoff home run to Josh Fellhauer, then a single and RBI double before being replaced by Tyler Mathis. Mathis gave up two runs before retiring the side, and the Titans led 7-0.
In the sixth Mathis gave up a single and RBI triple before recording an out on a liner back to the mound and was relieved by Neil Holland, whose luck wasn't much better. He gave up an RBI single to make it 9-0, and the Titans added three in the eighth, aided by a throwing error by UofL shortstop John Dao. That made the final margin 12-0.
The Cardinals vowed to turn the page in the post-game press conference. But outside of a pair of home runs by Chris Dominguez, Saturday's Game 2 of the Super Regional looked eerily similar to Game 1.
Despite facing Louisville ace Justin Marks, Fullerton raced to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first. But just as Keikhefer had done a day earlier, Marks recovered and held Fullerton to one run in the second and scoreless in the third and fourth before coming undone in the fifth, when he loaded the bases on a hit batsmen and two walks. Derek Self relieved and allowed just one run, and he retired the side in the sixth as the Cards drew within 6-2 before Fullerton put the game out of reach with a five-run seventh. That 11-2 margin would be the final score as Louisville was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by what was called at the time "the hottest team in college baseball."
Fullerton's two-game sweep continued its dominating run through the tournament. The Titans outscored their opponents 64-11 while earning their 16th College World Series appearance.
"They played extremely well in all areas of the game," McDonnell said. "I'll be looking forward to following them and seeing how they do in the College World Series."
As it turns out, Fullerton's hot streak came to an end somewhere between Southern California and Nebraska. The No. 2-ranked Titans lost to Arkansas in the opening game of the double-elimination tournament, then were ousted from the tournament by Virginia on Monday.
Despite the disappointing performance in California, McDonnell quickly reminded his team that they overachieved this season. The Cardinals' 47-win season tied a school record from 2007.
"It was a fun year," McDonnell said. "We faced some adversity, and we fought through. And we ended up having a lot of firsts. We had our first-ever, regular-season conference championship and first-ever, 40-win regular season. We hosted our first NCAA Regional, and we did a lot of successful things."
Off the field, McDonnell was proud of the Cardinals' performance as well.
"We had a team GPA of over 3.0," he said. "We have a lot of good kids and good character. We have talented kids, and they continue to take Louisville to new levels."
Despite clearly over-achieving given the adversity to their pitching staff, McDonnell said he wants to make sure his players understand his focus is always going to be on taking that next step to get back to Nebraska for the College World Series.
"Our coaches, we live to go to Omaha," he said. "We don't talk about it every day, but we live to go to Omaha. I think the pieces are in place."
The Cardinals return seven of nine position starters and figure to regain the services of 2008 freshman All-American Stewart Ijames next season. They'll also return injured pitchers Matt Lea and Keith Landers (the other injured starter, Mike Nastold, is out for another year after Tommy John surgery), and weekend starters Keikhefer, Bob Revesz and Tony Zych. McDonnell said it won't be long before Louisville makes another run to the College World Series.
"We have the facilities and we have the resources, we just have to keep working," he said. "It's a simple formula. You either live Omaha or you don't. I live it. I think our assistant coaches live it. I think our administration lives it. Now it is our job to get great players, develop them and compete."
Cards run into 'buzzsaw' in California
By Howie Lindsey
Louisville flew to Fullerton, Calif., for the NCAA baseball Super Regional having already surpassed the level most fans and program observers expected. Despite losing three of its top five pitchers to injuries, UofL had regrouped to win the Big East regular-season and tournament championships and beat Indiana, MTSU and Vanderbilt to advance to the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament.
Despite already surpassing expectations, Louisville coach Dan McDonnell wanted to keep his squad focused on a possible trip to Omaha for the College World Series, a destination the Cardinals realized in 2007 in McDonnell's first season as coach. McDonnell wanted his players to believe they could make another run to Omaha.
But it took just a few innings to realize that knocking off the No. 2-seeded Fullerton Titans in a best-of-three series on their home field was going to be too much to ask for a Cardinals team with just one senior starter in the field.
Fullerton leaped ahead 3-0 in the first inning of Game 1 and never really looked back, sweeping Louisville 12-0 and 11-2 in Louisville's most lopsided losses of the season.
"I just want to congratulate Cal-State Fullerton," McDonnell said. "They are obviously a great team, and they are very hot right now. We just ran into a buzzsaw."
Fullerton looked spectacular in every way. The Titans outscored the Cardinals 23-2 and held UofL's normally live bats to a paltry .129 average.
"The way we're going right now is pretty special," Fullerton senior second baseman Joe Scott said.
And it was. The Titans looked unbeatable in two games that looked like mirror images of each other. It started with a tremendous performance by Fullerton ace Daniel Renken in Game 1.
Renken improved to 11-2 and certainly helped his already stellar 2.56 ERA with a complete-game, three-hit shutout. He kept Louisville guessing throughout the game, tying a career high with 10 strikeouts.
"It's pretty obvious what happened. Our tail was kicked tonight," McDonnell said. "We never got into a rhythm."
Of the Cardinals 27 outs, 10 were strikeouts and 14 were pop-ups. It was just the second time Louisville had failed to score a run this season. In fact, it was only the fourth time since McDonnell brought his agressive offensive system to Louisville that the Cardinals had been shut out.
Fullerton was just as dominant on offense, as Louisville starter Dean Keikhefer got off to a rough start. After his teammates went scoreless in the top of the first, Keikhefer gave up three runs on three hits while hitting two batters and allowing a pair of steals in the bottom half. It could have been worse, but Keikhefer struck out Joe Scott to strand runners on second and third.
Keikhefer then held Fullerton scoreless in the second and third, and he allowed a single run in the fourth. It was the fifth inning when Keikhefer's night went south again. He surrendered a leadoff home run to Josh Fellhauer, then a single and RBI double before being replaced by Tyler Mathis. Mathis gave up two runs before retiring the side, and the Titans led 7-0.
In the sixth Mathis gave up a single and RBI triple before recording an out on a liner back to the mound and was relieved by Neil Holland, whose luck wasn't much better. He gave up an RBI single to make it 9-0, and the Titans added three in the eighth, aided by a throwing error by UofL shortstop John Dao. That made the final margin 12-0.
The Cardinals vowed to turn the page in the post-game press conference. But outside of a pair of home runs by Chris Dominguez, Saturday's Game 2 of the Super Regional looked eerily similar to Game 1.
Despite facing Louisville ace Justin Marks, Fullerton raced to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first. But just as Keikhefer had done a day earlier, Marks recovered and held Fullerton to one run in the second and scoreless in the third and fourth before coming undone in the fifth, when he loaded the bases on a hit batsmen and two walks. Derek Self relieved and allowed just one run, and he retired the side in the sixth as the Cards drew within 6-2 before Fullerton put the game out of reach with a five-run seventh. That 11-2 margin would be the final score as Louisville was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by what was called at the time "the hottest team in college baseball."
Fullerton's two-game sweep continued its dominating run through the tournament. The Titans outscored their opponents 64-11 while earning their 16th College World Series appearance.
"They played extremely well in all areas of the game," McDonnell said. "I'll be looking forward to following them and seeing how they do in the College World Series."
As it turns out, Fullerton's hot streak came to an end somewhere between Southern California and Nebraska. The No. 2-ranked Titans lost to Arkansas in the opening game of the double-elimination tournament, then were ousted from the tournament by Virginia on Monday.
Despite the disappointing performance in California, McDonnell quickly reminded his team that they overachieved this season. The Cardinals' 47-win season tied a school record from 2007.
"It was a fun year," McDonnell said. "We faced some adversity, and we fought through. And we ended up having a lot of firsts. We had our first-ever, regular-season conference championship and first-ever, 40-win regular season. We hosted our first NCAA Regional, and we did a lot of successful things."
Off the field, McDonnell was proud of the Cardinals' performance as well.
"We had a team GPA of over 3.0," he said. "We have a lot of good kids and good character. We have talented kids, and they continue to take Louisville to new levels."
Despite clearly over-achieving given the adversity to their pitching staff, McDonnell said he wants to make sure his players understand his focus is always going to be on taking that next step to get back to Nebraska for the College World Series.
"Our coaches, we live to go to Omaha," he said. "We don't talk about it every day, but we live to go to Omaha. I think the pieces are in place."
The Cardinals return seven of nine position starters and figure to regain the services of 2008 freshman All-American Stewart Ijames next season. They'll also return injured pitchers Matt Lea and Keith Landers (the other injured starter, Mike Nastold, is out for another year after Tommy John surgery), and weekend starters Keikhefer, Bob Revesz and Tony Zych. McDonnell said it won't be long before Louisville makes another run to the College World Series.
"We have the facilities and we have the resources, we just have to keep working," he said. "It's a simple formula. You either live Omaha or you don't. I live it. I think our assistant coaches live it. I think our administration lives it. Now it is our job to get great players, develop them and compete."
