Louisville blows out Miami in Super Regional opener

Miami left 12 runners on base and a costly error in the third inning led to five Louisville runs as the Hurricanes lost 8-1 to the Cardinals in game one of the Super Regional on Friday. Louisville and Miami will have first pitch on Saturday at 11 AM Eastern Daylight Time.

The pivotal play of the game came with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the third and Louisville leading 2-1. Garret Pike for Louisville grounded back to Miami pitcher A.J. Ciscar for what should have been a double play, literally as easy as 1-2-3.

Ciscar threw wide of Miami catcher Tanner Smith and Matt Klein and Zion Rose scored for Louisville to put the Cardinals ahead 4-1. Jake Monroe hit a three-run home run on the next pitch to put Louisville ahead 7-1 and blow the game open. Miami never recovered.

Louisville took the lead in the bottom of the second inning with consecutive HRs by Garrett Pike and Monroe. Miami had an opportunity to take the lead in the top of the second inning when they loaded the bases with one out on two walks and a hit by pitch. Michael Torres and Jake Ogden struck out to end the inning.

The Hurricanes cut the Louisville lead in half in the top of the third inning on a Renzo Gonzalez sacrifice fly to score Daniel Cuvet. Smith struck out swinging to end the inning. Monroe added his fifth run batted in of the game on a fourth-inning sacrifice fly.

Miami had other chances with two runners on base in the fourth and seventh innings. The Hurricanes were (2-10) with two outs, (2-16) with runners on base and (0-11) with runners in scoring position. Ciscar allowed seven runs, six earned, on seven hits with a walk and a strikeout.

Louisville starter Patrick Forbes pitched 5.2 innings, allowing one earned run on four hits, four walks and two hit batters with nine strikeouts. Griffin Hugus (6-7, 3.90 ERA) is the scheduled starter for Miami on Saturday versus Tucker Biven (3-0, 4.37 ERA) for Louisville.