(OMAHA, Neb.)—It may have taken just around 24-hours to complete, but Louisville eventually eliminated Auburn at a TD Ameritrade Park that was still drying up on Wednesday.
The Cardinals toppled the Tigers 5-3 in a contest that was postponed by rain yesterday. Regardless of duration, Louisville continued to play well and will stick around in Omaha and see another day in the tournament.
The game got underway Tuesday afternoon just after 1 p.m. CT. While there were clouds in the sky, the rain hadn’t yet started at first pitch. That being said, everyone in the park was waiting for the rain to come down.
Louisville struck first in the top half of the inning with a solo home run from Tyler Fitzgerald. For Fitzgerald, it was his eight homer of the year, and gave Louisville the momentum from the get-go.
Auburn responded an inning later with an RBI ground out to second that brought in Edouard Julien from third base. Although early, but the Tigers had overcome the deficit.
It was the fourth inning when everything changed. The rain slowly started to set in, first a sprinkle, transitioning to a steady downpour. Fans not under the protection of the roof at TD Ameritrade Park either sought cover or whipped out their garbage bag-esque ponchos. The wet conditions started to take a toll on the game and Louisville was the benefactor.
With the Cardinals at the plate, Auburn struggled with the increasingly wet conditions of both the ball and the field. Auburn starter Bailey Horn loaded the bases with the rain coming down, before exiting, handing over the mess to Elliot Anderson. The conditions of the mound were never up to par for Anderson, who asked the home plate umpire to inspect the conditions several times. It didn’t matter. Anderson ended up walking in a run, giving Louisville the lead back at 2-1.
It was then that things got really unlucky for the Tigers. A ground ball to Auburn second baseman Ryan Bliss, seemingly could’ve ended the inning. However, the ball slipped out of his hands, allowing two runs to cross and helped Louisville to extend the lead to 4-1. Auburn would not allow any more runs in the fourth. When the game was heading to the fifth inning, that’s when the inevitable rain delay was put into place. In whatever way it’s looked at, the rain helped Louisville, and perhaps costed Auburn the game.
It wasn’t until later Tuesday evening that the game was officially moved to Wednesday with an 11 a.m. resuming time. Teams would have to go to sleep before they could finish the game.
With a day’s rest, Auburn had time to let the momentum reset. After a few scoreless innings to get back into play, Auburn tallied a run in the bottom half of the seventh inning, thanks to an RBI-double by Conor Davis.
Davis had a day. In his three at bats in the Wednesday portion of the game, he had two doubles and a home run.
It didn’t take Louisville too long to answer as Drew Campbell, who played an exceptional defensive game in right fiel, drove in a run with an RBI single. The Louisville lead was back to three at 5-2.
Despite picking up three hits in the bottom of the eighth and loading the bases with two outs, Auburn was unable to get a leg up on the Cards. It would come down to the ninth. Davis hit his solo home run in that inning to bring Auburn within two. Then Steven Williams hit double to bring the tying run to the plate. Michael Kirian would them put the Tigers last hopes to bed as he picked up his only strikeout against Rankin Woley, and the Cardinals would hold on by a final of 5-3.
For Auburn, they go 0-2 at their first CWS since 1997 in two of the most heart-breaking ways possible. They blew a three-run lead in the ninth to lose to Mississippi State and were on the wrong end of the momentum pendulum as a result of a lengthy rain delay.
Louisville, on the other hand, extends their trip to Omaha. They will await the loser of Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, who face off Wednesday afternoon. The Cardinals’ next game will be Thursday evening.
-Ben Helwig, Sports reporter
