Gardewine, Chad Green Pick Up College Pitching Wins; Grahn PItches for EIU

Game one of a three game series in Great Rivers Athletic Conference action between Kaskaskia and Lincoln Trail went to the Blue Devils, 3-0.

It was a scoreless game through five innings before the Blue Devils scored two runs in the top of the sixth and one more in the seventh. That is all starter Nick Gardewine (Effingham) needed as he pitched his second consecutive shutout, going nine innings giving up just three hits, striking out 15 batters and walking none.

He has now run his scoreless innings to 23. He is 4-1 on the season, the Blue Devils go to 7-3 in conference and 11-5 overall.

Kyle Floyd (Windsor) went 2-for-3 on the day. Kaskaskia will be back in action in a doubleheader today at Centralia against Lincoln Trail.

Louisville 10, Notre Dame 5

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Junior third baseman Ty Young went 3-for-5 with two triples and a career best five RBI to lead the 10th-ranked Louisville baseball team to a 10-5 series-opening win over No. 15 Notre Dame on Thursday night at Jim Patterson Stadium.

The Cardinals improved to 20-5 overall and evened their record to 2-2 in BIG EAST Conference games, while the Fighting Irish dropped to 15-7 on the season and 2-2 in league games. The two teams will continue their series on Friday at 6 p.m., ET before concluding the weekend on Saturday at 1 p.m. Admission is free throughout the series.

Young (Coatesville, Pa./Malvern Prep), who became the first Cardinal with two triples in a game since Andrew Clark did it in 2008, led the way as four Louisville players finished with at least two hits in the win. Sophomore shortstop Sutton Whiting (New Wilmington, Pa./Louisville Ballard HS) was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored, while senior first baseman Zak Wasserman (Stevensville, Mich./Lakeshore HS) and junior catcher Shane Crain (Lexington, Ky./Wabash Valley CC) added two hits each. Junior outfielder Cole Sturgeon (Owensboro, Ky./Owensboro Catholic HS) also chipped with in with a double and three RBI while scoring once in the win.

On the mound, junior righthander Chad Green (Effingham, Ill./Effingham HS) earned the win and improved to 4-2 overall after allowing four runs on five hits in five innings, while sophomore lefty Kyle McGrath(Louisville, Ky./Eastern Kentucky) pitched 2.1 innings of shutout relief with five strikeouts to pick up his first career save. Junior righty Dace Kime (Defiance, Ohio/Defiance HS) bridged the gap between those with allowing only an unearned run with two strikeouts in 1.2 innings of relief.

Jacksonville State 3, Eastern Illinois University 2

The Panther baseball team dropped its series opener at Jacksonville State 3-2 Thursday evening at Rudy Abbott Field. Game two of the weekend series is slated for 6:30 p.m. today.

Tied at two in the bottom of the eighth inning, Andrew Bishop hit the go-ahead RBI with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Zach Elbirt and put the Gamecocks (13-14, 7-3 OVC) up 3-2. Travis Stout posted his seventh save of the year in the top of the next inning to retire all three Panther batters he faced to end the potential comeback.

Ben Kennedy (1-2) took the loss for EIU, striking out two and allowing two hits and two runs (one earned) in 2.1 innings of relief. North Clay graduate Andrew Grahn made the start and went five innings with three strikeouts while surrendering five hits and one run.

"Andrew did a great job pitching so did Scott Houdek and Ben," said EIU Coach Jim Schmitz. "We have to battle back to get into the series with Joe (Greenfield) on the mound. Offensively, we didn't do a good job with our approach of taking their left-handed pitcher the other way, and that hurt us this evening."