Louisville, Vanderbilt to meet in College World Series

It didn't take even 24 hours after the University of Louisville baseball team punched its ticket to the College World Series for the Cardinals to have some added motivation.

U of L, fresh off a super regional sweep of Kennesaw State over the weekend, will play Vanderbilt in a CWS opener at 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb. The Commodores (46-19) beat Stanford 12-5 in a decisive Game 3 of their super regional on Sunday in Nashville, Tenn.

The Cards (50-15) have developed an intense rivalry with the Commodores in recent years, one that reached a crescendo with U of L's two-game sweep of last year's super regional at Vandy.

The Cards also won 11-7 on May 6 in the teams' only meeting this year, retaining the upper hand in a rivalry that is called the Battle of the Barrel.

Like U of L, Vanderbilt was the top seed in its four-team, opening-weekend regional. The Commodores beat Xavier once and Oregon twice to advance to the super regional, where they scored 27 total runs over three games but lost Game 2 on a walk-off home run.

ESPN will carry the double-elimination CWS from Saturday through the championship series, which starts June 24.

U of L is making its second consecutive CWS appearance and third since 2007, but the Cards went 1-4 in their first two trips to Omaha.

This is the second CWS berth for Vanderbilt, which traveled to Omaha in 2011 but was eliminated by Southeastern Conference rival Florida in the losers' bracket championship.

The Commodores got there this year with some of the best pitching numbers in Division I baseball — this past weekend excluded. Their staff ranks 16th in the nation in ERA and third in strikeouts per nine innings.

Walker Buehler, a sophomore right-hander from Lexington's Henry Clay High School, is 11-2 with a 2.27 ERA, but the Cards probably will face Tyler Beede (8-7, 3.58 ERA) on Saturday.

Righty Kyle Funkhouser (13-2, 1.73) will start the opener for U of L. He threw seven innings in Friday's come-from-behind victory over Kennesaw State and is tied for the national lead in wins.

Reach Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter @jeffgreer_cj.

U of L vs. Vanderbilt

Saturday or Sunday, time TBA, Omaha, Neb., ESPN

INSIDE/C2

Cardinals complete another postseason sweep with 7-4 victory over Kennesaw State.