Opponent Q&A: Get To Know Louisville Cardinals Baseball

Friday at 4 p.m. PT, Oregon State begin their run in Omaha at the College World Series. Their first opponents will be the Louisville Cardinals (40-22) out of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Louisville limped into the postseason, losing six of their last seven regular season games before making a first-round exit in the ACC Tournament. Since then, they've looked exceptional, sweeping the Nashville Regional and beating top-seeded Vanderbilt. Then hosted a regional against the Miami Hurricanes and took two out of three.

For more on the Cardinals, we tossed a few questions toward Matthew McGavic, publisher of Louisville Cardinals On SI ahead of the matchup between the Beavers and UofL.

1. Louisville entered the postseason on a down swing, but have rebounded significantly since the NCAA Tournament began, winning five of six. What changed?

"The biggest aspect of Louisville’s turnaround during the NCAA Tournament has unquestionably been much improved pitching. Entering the Big Dance, the Cardinals’ had an ERA of 5.72, which was 122nd in all of Division I. In 53 innings pitched over six NCAA Tournament games, Louisville has allowed just 12 earned runs, which works out to an ERA of 2.04. It’s a tremendous turnaround considering that, ever since COVID struck, pitching coach Roger Williams has been the ire of the fanbase - especially following a 2024 campaign where the team ERA inflated to 6.50. But to his and the pitching staff’s credit, they have been firing on all cylinders ever since the NCAA Tournament started."

2. What makes likely Friday starting RHP Patrick Forbes so difficult to face as a batter?

"He’s anchored by a fastball that many starting pitchers in college simply don’t have. It regularly sits in the 94-95/6 range, and can peak close to 100 at times. Add in a power slider that he tosses around 82-84, and a decent cutter and changeup, and is he extremely hard to pick up on and react to. As a result, he’s got very high strikeout numbers, with his K/9 of 14.59 ranked third in all of D1. There are some command issues at times, and he is prone to innings where he struggles with it at times. But overall, he is the embodiment of an ace pitcher."

3. Louisville has stolen significantly more bases (155) than anybody left in the tournament. What’s made them so lethal in that department?

"It’s mainly because of the three-headed monster of Lucas Moore, Alex Alicea and Zion Rose. It’s not hyperbole to say that Moore is one of the fastest and twitchiest players in all of college baseball. Considering his 51 stolen bases leads all of D1, you kind of have to be. Not to be outdone, Alicea and Rose both have 30 on the season, and Alicea might have even more had it not been for a late season thumb injury that sidelined him for a couple weeks. They also subscribe to the “threat of the steal” notion, where they get pitchers so worried about Moore/Alicea/Rose on the base paths, that they make a mistake pitch to the batter they’re actively facing."

4. Dan McDonnell is coming up on two decades as Louisville’s head coach. What, in your opinion/experience, has kept him there for this long?

"I’d say it’s a combination of sustained consistency on McDonnell’s behalf (at least prior to COVID), and buy-in from the athletic department as well. During the mid-2010’s, Louisville was as deadly of a program as anyone was in college baseball. On top of that, the last two athletic directors were extremely bought in to the baseball program, and made sure McDonnell was well-compensated whenever other programs came calling. While as of late, there have been questions not only about McDonnell’s consistency, as well as questions regarding UofL’s investment into baseball, this run in the NCAA’s has disputed the notion by many that McDonnell had 'lost his fastball.'"

5. What concerns you the most about UofL's chances in Omaha, whether it be their own weaknesses or something else?

"It’s that aforementioned consistency. During the regular season, Louisville was powered primarily by an electric group of hitters, but they were very streaky at times. For instance, they plated 14 runs in a single inning in their opener at Georgia Tech, only two score one over the next two games to lose the series. Then there was the pitching. While the starting rotation was largely doing its job before the NCAAs, the bullpen was prone to some massive let downs at times. If Louisville is to make a deep run in Omaha, they primarily need to make sure the pitching staff continues doing what they are doing, but also, the hitters simply need to play fundamental and situational baseball."