Green, Louisville Suffer Loss at College World Series

OMAHA, Neb. - In an eerily similar performance to its season-opening loss to the same team, the fourth-ranked Louisville baseball team kicked off the 2013 College World Series by dropping a 2-0 decision to Indiana Saturday night at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.

With the loss, the Cardinals (51-13) now face an elimination game today at 2 p.m., CT against No. 3 national seed Oregon State (50-12), which lost 5-4 to Mississippi State Saturday afternoon. Indiana (49-18) advances to a winner's bracket contest against the Bulldogs (49-18) Monday at 7 p.m., CT.

Though it was just the second shutout loss of the season for Louisville, it was the second time in 2013 they were held scoreless by Indiana after losing by the same 2-0 score on opening day (Feb. 15) in Dunedin, Fla. After managing just six hits in the first 2-0 loss to IU, the Cardinals finished with only four hits in Saturday's defeat.

In a rematch of the same starting pitchers from the opening day matchup, Indiana lefty Joey DeNato kept the Louisville hitters off-balanced and out of sync finishing with eight strikeouts and three walks on a career-high 136 pitches for the complete game shutout win to move his overall record this season to 10-2. For Louisville, junior righty Chad Green (Effingham, Ill./Effingham HS) lost for the second time this season against the Hoosiers and dropped his season mark to 10-4 overall after allowing two runs on three hits with four strikeouts and four walks in 2.0 plus innings to match his shortest outing of 2013.

At the plate, it was also a case of history repeating itself as designated hitter Scott Donely and shortstop Michael Basil, who accounted for one RBI each in the season-opening win, chipped in with RBIs on Saturday to push Indiana to its first CWS win in its first ever appearance in Omaha. The Hoosiers struck early when Donley connected for a two-out, RBI single up the middle to plate catcher Kyle Schwarber for the 1-0 advantage in the first. Following a scoreless second, Indiana pushed its lead to 2-0 in the third inning on a RBI single to left by Basil. Those two runs turned out to be more than enough as Louisville struggled to forge any offensive threat.

Though the Cardinals struggled offensively against DeNato, the bullpen kept the deficit at just two as junior lefty Cody Ege (Cherokee, Iowa/Washington HS) worked a career long 4.1 innings and matched a career-high with six strikeouts while allowing only three hits in the no-decision. In his four relief outings this season against IU, Ege has 15 strikeouts with just three walks while allowing only three hits in 8.1 scoreless innings. Junior righty Dace Kime (Defiance, Ohio/Defiance HS) added two shutout innings while junior lefty Cole Sturgeon (Owensboro, Ky./Owensboro Catholic HS) recorded the final two outs in the ninth.

Sturgeon, who started the game in right field, was the lone bright spot for the Louisville offense finishing with two hits in his three at-bats, while Schwarber added two hits and scored once for Indiana.

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Postgame Louisville Notes

- Making its second College World Series appearance, the Cardinals lost their opener for the second time and dropped to 1-3 all-time in Omaha.

- Louisville dropped to 19-16 all-time in the NCAA Championship.

- With Saturday's loss, their third to Indiana this season, the Cardinals trail 22-21 in the all-time series with the Hoosiers.

- UofL dropped to 12-8 this season in games where its opponent scored first. They also moved to 8-6 when the opponent scores in the first inning.

- The Cardinals have allowed two or fewer earned runs in 36 of 64 games this season.

- UofL dropped to 17-7 this season against lefty starters.

- Louisville's four hits on Saturday are tied for its second lowest this season. The Cardinals had four hits in a 2-1 win against Akron on Feb. 24 and three hits in a 2-1 win against Georgetown on April 26.

- Chad Green's four losses in 2013 have come against only two teams -- Indiana (two losses) and Rutgers (two losses).

- With his 4.1 shutout innings of work on Saturday ,Cody Ege lowered his overall ERA to just 1.04 to go with 52 strikeouts in 34.2 innings of work.

- By working two shutout innings of relief on Saturday, Dace Kime lowered his overall ERA to just 2.99 on the season.

- Saturday night's crowd of 27,122 (sell out) is the largest in TD Ameritrade Park Omaha history. It is also the largest crowd to ever witness a Louisville baseball game.