Just when a longtime fan who will remain nameless is about to throw in the towel on the 2025 season, the University of Louisville baseball team shocks the college baseball world with a 14-2 rout of Florida State at Jim Patterson Stadium on Sunday. The win was the second in a row over the Seminoles, giving the Cardinals a much needed 2-1 series win over the Atlantic Coast Conference power.
And what a day for UofL center fielder Lucas Moore. A milestone of an occasion. The 6-foot native of Cincinnati getting Louisville off to a good start with a towering two-run home run in the first inning. Then in the bottom of the seventh inning coming through with a grand slam home run, driving in his third, fourth, fifth and sixth runs batted in for the day.
The seventh-inning blast amounted to a walk off home run, initiating the mercy rule because Louisville had a 10-run lead over the visitors.
The home runs were his third and fourth of the season for Moore, who is the leading hitter on the team with a .376 batting average. He also leads the team in stolen bases with 33 successful steals in 34 attempts. He is third in runs batted in in 43 games.
Moore said his team was pretty bummed after a lopside loss to Kentucky earlier in the week. “Coach told us we needed to put it behind us and come out with more juice,” he said. “That needed to be true after we beat FSU on Saturday. We need to come with more juice even after we win. We need to be prepared every game.”
Big games also for reliever-turned-starter Tucker Biven, a 6-foot-2 junior from New Albany, who held Florida State to four hits and two runs in four innings. And for sophomore B.J. Schlageter, a 6-foot-2 lefty from Romeoville, Ill., holding the Seminoles to two hits in 3.2 innings.
The win improved Louisville’s overall record to 30-10 and 12-9 in the ACC. Could this be a team that brings everything together in fourth quarter and makes a serious stretch run in June? One can only hope.
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Congratulations, too, to the University of Louisville women’s softball team, shutting out the seventh-ranked FSU 2-0 to salvage a win in a three-game series at Dan Ulmer Stadium. A long ride home to Tallahassee for the teams who shared an airplane for the trip.
