By Glenn Osborne
Special to NKyTribune
Those predicting a tumble for the University of Louisville’s baseball program following its move to the Atlantic Coast Conference this year couldn’t have been more wrong.
The third-ranked Cardinals picked up right where they left off last year when they qualified for their second successive College World Series and third in eight seasons. Coach Dan McDonnell’s Cards whipped North Carolina State 8-5 on the road last weekend to set a new ACC record for league wins in a season. UofL will carry an overall mark of 42-14, 25-5 ACC, into this week’s league tournament.
Louisville finished 50-17 a year ago while competing in the American Conference. The Cards have posted at least 40 wins in each of the last four seasons and eight times in nine years under McDonnell. Remarkably, Louisville has been ranked nationally in at least one of the major college baseball polls every week since the beginning of the 2012 season.
After adding the ACC Atlantic Division championship, Louisville claimed its fourth straight regular season title in three different leagues. After finishing with an 18-9 record and sharing the 2012 Big East Conference title with St. John’s, the Cardinals stood alone as champions in their final season in the league with a 20-4 mark in 2013.
In the program’s only season in the American Athletic Conference in 2014, Louisville finished with a 19-5 league record for sole ownership of the inaugural conference title. Overall, the Cardinals have won six regular season conference championships in nine seasons.
In the ACC tourney, set for the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, North Carolina, UofL will begin its week on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against the winner of Tuesday afternoon’s North Carolina-Virginia Tech play-in game. Louisville is in Pool A, joined by fourth-seeded Florida State (37-19, 17-13) and fifth-seeded Clemson (31-25, 16-13 ACC).
Under the pool-play format, each team will play one game against each of the other three opponents in its pool Wednesday through Saturday. The two teams with the best records within their respective pools will advance to the title game on Sunday, with the winner earning the ACC’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
In SEC tournament play, Kentucky will face No. 9 seed Auburn in a single-elimination first-round game Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama. The winner then becomes part of the double-elimination format and draws top-ranked LSU on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
Kentucky is making its 15th all-time SEC Tournament appearance and its school-record fourth consecutive for the first time since 1993-96. UK has earned at least a No. 9 seed in four straight years and is coming off a school-record three wins in the 2014 SEC Tournament, leading to the berth in the semifinal round, tying the best finish in UK history.
Kentucky (30-24, 14-15 SEC), which is coming off a road series win over Missouri, equaled its school record by winning three SEC series away from home, including one over LSU. Only LSU and Vanderbilt have more league road series wins than UK this year.
Morehead State senior catcher Chris Robinson has been named a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, awarded to the top player in Division I baseball. The award is selected by members of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
The finalists for the 29th Howser award will be announced on June 10 and will be presented at TD Ameritrade Stadium in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, the home of the College World Series for the fifth year. The winner will be unveiled on MLBNetwork on June 12 and then a press conference with the winner will be held on June 13 at 11 a.m., the opening day of the 2015 CWS.
In this week’s OVC tournament, Morehead State secured the second seed — its best since 1994 — and will open on Thursday at 4 p.m. All games will be played at The Ballpark at Jackson in Western Tennessee. Southeast Missouri, which finished OVC play 22-8, is the No. 1 seed. No. 3 SIU Edwardsville, No. 4 Tennessee Tech, No. 5 Jacksonville State and No. 6 Belmont round out the field. The double-elimination event runs Wednesday through Saturday, with the “if necessary” round on Sunday.
Tennessee Tech and Jacksonville State begin the tournament on Wednesday, with SIU Edwardsville and Belmont to follow. The losers play an elimination tilt on Thursday with he Eagles (35-20, 20-10 OVC) facing the best seed of the winners and SEMO squares off with the higher remaining seed.
Jacksonville State won the 2014 league tournament and participated in an NCAA Regional. Morehead State is hoping for its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1983.
The sixth-ranked Kentucky women’s team finished third behind Arkansas and Texas A&M at the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships last weekend, earning 99 points for its best finish since 1982 (third) when eight teams were in the league. UK’s best SEC outdoor finish was second place in 1981, the first year the meet was held. UK was fourth a year ago.
The Kentucky men placed sixth with 58 points, equaling the team placement from a season ago, which was the best since 1996.
Three Wildcats earned SEC Individual Championships, led by Kendra Harrison, who defended her 100-meter hurdles title in a meet-record 12.50 seconds. Keffri Neal defended his 1,500m championship and Justin Kretchmer won the men’s high jump.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has announced the qualifiers for this week’s Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships and Thomas More College freshman Christina Cook made the grade in the 400-meter dash.
The NCAA Championships will be May 21-23 at the Merrick-Pinkard Track & Field Complex on the campus of St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York.
Cook is the first female Thomas More track & field student-athlete to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the program’s four-year history. She qualified fourth the 400-meters with a time of 55.75-seconds, which she set at the Gregory Final Qualifier hosted by North Central College last weekend.
Cook was named the 2015 Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) Indoor Co-Track Athlete of the Year after she finished first in the 400-meter dash, third in the 200-meter dash and fourth in the 60-meter dash. During the outdoor season, she was the PAC champion in the 400-meter dash and placed third in the 200-meter dash.
The 400-meter dash preliminaries are set for Friday and the finals will be contested at 2:15 p.m. on Saturday.
Glenn Osborne is sports editor for KyForward.com, where this story was originally published.