Feb. 24, 2012

Box Score

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Tim Ryan and Spencer Marentette had two hits each, but the Oakland baseball team (0-2) lost to No. 24 Louisville (4-1) on Friday, 7-4, at Patterson Field. Four different Golden Grizzlies drove in a run.

"I thought we pitched well," said head coach John Musachio. "We showed improvement from Wednesday and played better defense for the most part."

Oakland scored four runs over the final five innings. Marentette started the OU rally in the fifth with an RBI-single to score John Estes. He later crossed the play on a single by Ryan, to cut the Louisville lead to 5-2. OU tacked on two more runs in the eighth inning when Jake Morton scored on a single by Kyle Bobolts and Ryan later scored to make it 6-4.

The Cardinal used a five-run fourth inning to break open a scoreless game. Louisville scored five runs on five hits in the inning, but also took advantage of three OU errors. The Cardinal later added single runs in the fifth and eighth inning.

"Our defense has to help us avoid big innings," said Musachio. "We're a good team and if we limit our opposition to just three outs per inning we're going be in a position to win. This is a young and talented team and we'll continue to get better with experience."

Ryan finished the day 2-for-3 and stole his 50th base as an OU player, while Marentette went 2-for-4. Jeff Gorecki (0-1) took the loss for the Golden Grizzlies in his first start of the season, giving up 6 runs on eight hits. Kevin Korkate threw two scoreless innings of scoreless relief.

Louisville outhit Oakland 11-6 in support of Justin Amlung (1-1) who earned his first win of the season. Derek Self (2) came on to earn the save for the Cardinal, allowing just one hit over the final two innings.

The Golden Grizzlies will return to Patterson Field tomorrow at 1 p.m. for game two of the three-game series with Louisville.

-OAKLAND-