The Louisville baseball team won its 12th consecutive NCAA regional tournament opener with an 8-3 victory over East Tennessee State Friday afternoon in Nashville.
The Cards will face either No. 1 overall seed Vanderbilt or Wright State Saturday night at 9. The Commodores and Raiders will square off Friday evening at 6.
U of L starter Patrick Forbes, returning from an injury that kept him sidelined for the last three weeks of the regular season, was brilliant in six innings of work. He struck out 12 Buccaneer hitters, tying his career-high and setting a new single-game postseason record by a Cardinals pitcher. Forbes surrendered just two hits, with both runs allowed coming on a second inning home run that gave ETSU an early 2-0 lead.
From that point on, it was all Cards.
Lucas Moore crushed a two-run home run in the home half of he second, providing the first two of eight unanswered runs from Louisville. Eddie King Jr. was once again a star at the dish, going 3-for-4 with a home run and a pair of RBI. Catcher Matt Klein, making his first start after missing the last two months because of injury, also belted a two-run home run.
Brennyn Cutts worked the last three innings of the game, allowing just a single run and, most importantly, consistently throwing strikes.
The victory marked Louisville’s first triumph in the NCAA Tournament since 2022 (the program’s last appearance), and it’s first tournament win away from Jim Patterson Stadium since 2019.
Don’t let this group get hot.