Greer | College World Series all business this time for Louisville baseball
Jeff Greer
Three summers ago, I took a break from preparing for the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, and got a happy-hour drink with some friends. One of them, a Louisville fan, cracked a joke about my upcoming trip.
Pack lightly, they said.
It was gallows humor. Or a poor attempt at reversing the fledgling CWS curse that has kept Louisville, a team that has won 508 games since Dan McDonnell took over as coach before the 2007 season, from advancing very far on college baseball's biggest stage.
In three trips to Omaha – 2007, 2013 and 2014 – the Cards have won one game and lost six. That 2014 summer, my friend's advice turned out to be right: Louisville lost twice in three days and I was home in time to watch the U.S. run in the World Cup from my couch.
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A few years later, Louisville (52-10) is back in the CWS, the fourth berth in 11 years and third in five. And, if this past weekend's super regional, when U of L squashed any chance of a third consecutive postseason collapse with a quick sweep of Kentucky, is any indication, McDonnell's team is intent on changing the program's Omaha narrative.
"Maybe the struggles of the past few years have helped them, toughened them up, prepared their mindset," McDonnell said. "... We're not just going there to show off our red and black."
It's a tricky question to answer: Why have McDonnell's teams done so well over the past decade only to falter in the CWS?
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The run of success is eye-catching: The Cards have made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances with McDonnell at the helm, plus seven trips to the super-regional round while claiming eight regular-season titles in the American Athletic, Big East and Atlantic Coast conferences.
There were even five 50-win seasons along the way, including this year's team.
But then, Omaha happens. And the frustrating thing for the Cards is that they have found all kinds of ways to lose there.
In 2007, they led Rice 10-4 in their first-ever CWS game, only to give up 11 unanswered runs while committing four errors in the process.
In 2013, they committed four errors in another loss, this time against Oregon State. And McDonnell noted the incorrect safe call at first base that could've ended a fateful fourth inning but instead continued OSU's onslaught.
A year later, U of L left nine runners on base against Vanderbilt and then committed four errors vs. Texas.
"When I think back to some of the losses, other teams played better than us," McDonnell said. "They pitched better than us. They made some phenomenal plays against us. ... It's the same three factors: Pitch, play defense and try to get some timely hits."
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McDonnell did some research after his team clinched its newest CWS bid: Over the past four years, 38 games in Omaha were decided by one or two runs. Eight more were decided by three runs.
Four of Louisville's seven CWS games were determined by three or fewer runs.
"Once you get to Omaha, it's kind of a crapshoot," Aaron Fitt, of D1Baseball.com, said on the Courier-Journal's CardsHQ podcast this week. " ... You have to be hot at the right time. You have to be lucky at the right time. Louisville hasn't been hot and lucky at the right times."
Something about this Louisville team seems different.
Maybe it's that desire to buck the trend and erase the hurt from the past, like McDonnell said. Maybe it's this group's confidence and looseness. Or maybe it just feels like the Cards' year.
U of L is certainly hot. The Cards might want luck.
And to pack a fat suitcase for Nebraska, too, just in case.
Contact Jeff Greer at jgreer@courier-journal.com and follow him on Twitter, @JeffGreer_CJ.
