Anderson, Louisville Pound St. Bonaventure

W: Dan Snyder (1-0), L: Tristan Ciampa (0-1), S: Justin West (1)

On the heels of splitting a series-opening doubleheader with St. Bonaventure, the Louisville baseball program built on their strong performance in game two the day before, coming out on top with a decisive 15-2 victory on Saturday at Jim Patterson Stadium.

With the win, the Cardinals (2-4) claim at least a series tie in their four-game set against the Bonnies (2-4). Louisville is playing their first four game series Mar. 17-19, 2006 against Ball State.

Louisville's red-hot day at the plate was led by a fantastic performance from Brandon Anderson (3-3, 5 RBI, 2B), who became the first Cardinal to have a five RBI day since Ryan McCoy also did on Apr. 21, 2023 against Duke.

McCoy (3-5, 2 RBI) joined Anderson in having a three-hit day, Alex Alicea (2-2, 2 RBI, BB, HBP) and Matt Klein (1-3, RBI. 2B, 3 BB) got on base four times, and J.T. Benson (0-0, 3 BB) joined Klein in drawing three walks.

Once again, Louisville got off to a fast start, plating seven runs in the second inning. McCoy and Lucas Moore (2-3, RBI) each had one-run singles, Zion Rose (1-4, 2 RBI) drove in two runs on a single of his own, and Anderson collected a three-run double.

Over on the mound, the Cardinals got another solid start out of Evan Webster (4.0 IP, 5 K, 6 H, 1 ER). He set a new career-high in both strikeouts and total pitches (70), with his lone earned run coming from a based loaded groundout in the third.

After St. Bonaventure broke the shutout, Louisville responded with a fourth inning four-spot. Anderson brought home two more runs on an RBI single, McCoy tallied an RBI single, and Alicea hit an RBI double.

Even after pushing their lead over the Bonnies to double digits, the Cardinals didn't lift their foot off the gas. Klein added an RBI double to his ledger in the fifth, then Louisville put up a three-spot in the sixth. In that frame, Alicea and Michael Lippe (1-2, RBI) struck RBI singles, and Eddie King Jr. (2-3, RBI, 2B) hit a pinch-hit RBI double.

Once Webster's day on the mound was done, Louisville continued to get strong pitching out of the bullpen. Dan Snyder (2.0 IP, 1 K, 2 BB, 2 H, 1 ER) allowed only an RBI single in the fifth in what was his collegiate debut, then Justin West (3.0 IP, 3 K, 2 H) pitched scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth innings in his season debut for Louisville's second-straight three-out save.

Next up for Louisville, they'll conclude their weekend series against St. Bonaventure with game four. First pitch is slated for Sunday, Feb. 25 at 1:00 p.m. EST, and will be televised on ACC Network Extra and broadcast on 970 WGTK.