LOUISVILLE, KY (2/7/12) – The No. 15 Louisville baseball team will host a Red-Black scrimmage on Friday at 3 p.m., ET at Jim Patterson Stadium during the Cardinals’ final weekend prior to the 2012 season-opener on Feb. 17.
Admission is free to Friday’s intra-squad scrimmage, which will be preceded by batting practice at 1:50 p.m. The scrimmage will provide the Louisville players as well as fans with the usual gameday atmosphere at Patterson Stadium including music, player introductions and scoreboard.
Led by the return of preseason All-American pitcher and All-BIG EAST performer Justin Amlung, Louisville welcomes back nearly the entire pitching staff and numerous position players with starting experience from last year's squad. Overall, the Cardinals return 19 letterwinners from the 2011 team, which finished 32-29 overall, while adding a talented class of newcomers for 2012.
Along with the No. 15 ranking in the Collegiate Baseball newspaper preseason poll, the Cardinals are also ranked in the top 25 in three other major preseason polls and will enter the season ranked in the top 25 for the fourth straight season.
Head coach Dan McDonnell is in his sixth season leading the Louisville baseball program. In his five previous seasons, McDonnell is 217-106 with two BIG EAST regular-season titles, two BIG EAST Tournament titles, four NCAA Regionals, two NCAA Super-Regionals and one College World Series.
Louisville will open the 2012 season on Feb. 17 at 10 a.m., ET against Minnesota in Clearwater, Fla., on day one of the Big Ten/BIG EAST Challenge. Following games against Illinois (Feb. 18, 4 p.m.) and Michigan State (Feb. 19, 10 a.m.) to close the weekend, the Cardinals will return to Louisville for their home-opener at Patterson Stadium on Feb. 22 at 3 p.m., against Eastern Kentucky.
Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball.
SurfKY News
Information provided by Garett Wall
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