Louisville baseball's College World Series hopes falling flat in 2026

Alexis Cubit, Louisville Courier JournalThu, May 7, 2026 at 9:11 AM UTC

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Louisville’s baseball was projected to field another strong team in 2026. Fresh off the program’s sixth College World Series appearance, the Cardinals opened the year ranked 11th in the USA TODAY preseason coaches poll and were projected to finish fourth in the ACC standings.

Dan McDonnell liked the veteran experience the team had heading into his 20th season as Louisville’s head coach. Three months later, the Cardinals are unranked, outside of the NCAA Tournament picture and 11th in the conference while looking for a third ACC series win with only seven games left in the regular season. They’re one of three Power Four teams from the 2025 CWS currently on pace to miss the postseason, alongside national champion LSU (the preseason No. 1) and Arizona. It will take a strong finish, and perhaps winning the ACC Tournament, for the Cards to reach the Big Dance.

Louisville (26-23, 10-14) is on a five-game losing streak after getting swept at Wake Forest over the weekend and falling to Vanderbilt, 12-6, on Tuesday. The Cardinals will look to end the year with some positive momentum when they travel to Miami for their second-to-last ACC series of the regular season, starting Thursday. The Hurricanes are currently fifth in the league standings and projected to be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, per USA TODAY, D1Baseball and On3. Baseball America tabbed Miami as a 3-seed.

Louisville will end conference play by hosting No. 25 Virginia, currently seventh in the conference standings and a consensus projected 2-seed, next weekend.

“When we don’t play as well as we can play, when we don’t show a little more toughness, when we don’t show a little more fight, we don’t have as much success as I think we’re capable of having ... it’s my fault,” McDonnell said after the team’s series loss to Stanford on April 12. “It starts with me, so I’ve got to do a better job.”

Louisville has certainly shown an NCAA Tournament-caliber offense, but pitching struggles have been the team’s downfall. The Cards are ranked in the top 25 nationally in batting average (.307), runs scored (409) and runs per game (8.3).

Louisville’s Tague Davis was hit in by a home run by Bayram Hot against Kentucky at Jim Patterson Stadium in the 119th Battle of the Bluegrass. April 21, 2026

Tague Davis has been the catalyst, breaking the program’s single season home run record with his 26th homer in the 10-inning, 7-5 Game 3 victory over Clemson on April 26 at Jim Patterson Stadium.

“It just makes me think of so many great hitters from Phil Wunderlich to Dalton Rushing to Drew Ellis, Logan Johnson and guys that are on that All-American wall,” McDonnell said after Davis' accomplishment. “It’s not one of your smaller parks in college baseball. When you put up home runs, these are earned, for the most part. ... Great accomplishment for Tague.”

The Cards totaled seven home runs in the sweep of Clemson, their second ACC series win of the year. Davis currently leads the nation in home runs (30), total RBIs (84) and RBIs per game (1.8) while also ranking second in slugging (.882) and total bases (172), 10th in runs scored (62), 17th in total hits (72) and 58th in batting average (.377). A whopping 41.7% of his hits have cleared the fence.

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Griffin Crain has been the team’s second-leading hitter (.343) after not playing his freshman season in 2025, while Bayram Hot has raised his average from .326 a year ago to .341 this spring to help power the Cardinals’ fiery offense.

Zion Rose was elected as a team captain with high expectations for his junior season. But the outfielder has been in and out of the lineup, missing 21 games throughout the year with injuries. Still, he’s been efficient in his opportunities, batting .410 with a .496 on-base percentage while starting in 27 of 28 games played.

But for as good as their offense has been, the Cards are without a strong enough pitching staff to contend with the rest of the conference. They went from a 5.39 ERA in 2025 to a 6.65 ERA — which ranks 219th in the nation — a year later.

Wyatt Danilowicz and Ethan Eberle have been the team’s most-used arms; Eberle was the Friday night starter while Danilowicz was the Saturday starter in the first two conference series of the year, but they have since switched roles in the last four series. The two pitchers have combined for 119 2/3 of the team’s 414 1/3 innings, with Danilowicz (5.43 ERA) and Eberle (5.55 ERA) also leading the pitching staff in strikeouts with 77 and 64, respectively.

But from there, Louisville has lacked a consistent Game 3 starting pitcher during conference action. The Cards have used five different starters over the eight series, with Colton Hartman getting four of those nods. His last conference start was against Cal, where he allowed four earned runs on four hits with two walks and a strikeout over two-thirds of an inning in the 8-5 win April 19. In the last two series, relievers Casen Murphy and Jake Schweitzer have opened Game 3s against Clemson and Wake Forest, respectively; they combined to allow six runs in 3 1/3 innings in those contests.

Hoping that UofL’s pitching unit can shut down Miami, which has lost back-to-back games, for a series win will be a tall task. The ‘Canes have one of the better offenses in the conference, batting .300 on the year with Derek Williams’ .394 average leading the charge.

Louisville, which is 4-12 on the road, has the offensive firepower to make noise in the postseason but will need a stronger showing on the mound to reignite the glimmer of hope to reach the NCAA Tournament.

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at [email protected] and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville baseball schedule, why NCAA Tournament berth looks unlikely

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