The Miami baseball team came to Columbia having won 13 straight NCAA Regionals. The Hurricanes won their regional opener each of the last 10 years.

G.J. McCarthy photo

Louisville shortstop Chris Cates makes a diving stop of a ground ball by Miami’s Mark Sobolewski in the first inning. Cates and the Cardinals beat the Hurricanes 13-7.

Apparently, the Louisville Cardinals don’t have a lot of history majors.

Yesterday, the Hurricanes looked like nervous newcomers in a 13-7 loss to Louisville in front of 984 fans at Taylor Stadium. Using an assembly line of pitchers - it was a delight for connoisseurs of the mound visit - second-seeded Miami hurt itself with six walks, six hit batters, two errors and a run-scoring wild pitch.

Louisville, playing in its second regional ever, took care of the rest by whacking the ball all over the yard. The third-seeded Cardinals pounded 15 hits. Derrick Alfonso went 5 for 6 with a home run, and Isaiah Howes and Jorge Castillo also homered. Daniel Burton was 3 for 5 with four RBI.

"Coming in, from pitchers to hitters to coaches, everyone was real confident," Alfonso said. "We knew we were playing Miami, with their tradition and everything, but we just wanted to make a statement and say, ‘We’re here. We’re a good baseball team.’ "

Louisville spoiled the homecoming of Miami sophomore center fielder Blake Tekotte, a 2005 Hickman graduate. Tekotte went 1 for 5.

"It was just a tough game for us," Tekotte said. "You score in the first two innings and then don’t put any pressure on their defense."

The Hurricanes (36-23) appeared to be in control after a six-run second inning gave them a 7-3 lead. Richard O’Brien got things started with a solo home run. Tekotte did his part by delivering a hit-and-run line drive to left-center. Jemile Weeks provided the big blow with a bases-loaded triple.

All that damage came against Louisville starter Zack Pitts, the Big East pitcher of the year. He lasted just 12/3 innings.

"You try not to get down too much, but when they made that run, it was hard, because you’re thinking, ‘Oh my God, are they going to blow us out?’ " Alfonso said.

But Miami had its own pitching problems. Starter Scott Maine spent almost all of his four-inning stint pitching from the stretch. He gave up seven runs. Maine said he simply didn’t have his usual control, and Louisville’s Logan Johnson could vouch for that. Johnson was plunked in his first three at-bats.

The Hurricanes said Johnson was hard to avoid.

"The umpire had to tell him a lot of times to scoot back," said O’Brien, Miami’s catcher. "If he got any closer, if you would have hit him in the knee, it would have been a strike. The guy was right on top of the plate."

Said Miami Coach Jim Morris: "He’s been hit 30 times, so if the ball’s close to being inside, he’s going to get hit. That’s part of the game, if you want to do it as a player. To his credit, he gets on base. He’s a team player."

The Cardinals (41-20) did more than wear pitches, though. They also smacked them.

Castillo tied the score in the fourth inning with a three-run homer into a pine tree just beyond the fence in right. Miami right fielder Pete Rodriguez tried to make a leaping catch and lost his glove over the wall. The game was delayed momentarily while someone got the glove and chucked it back over the fence.

It was that kind of day for the Hurricanes. In the fourth inning, second baseman Weeks lost a Chris Dominguez pop fly in the sun, and it turned into a 100-foot double. In the eighth, left fielder Mark Sobolewski misjudged Boomer Whiting’s wind-blown fly ball, which became a 340-foot single off the wall. The very next batter, Johnson, hit a similar fly, which Sobolewski also misjudged for an error.

Morris searched in vain for someone who could get some outs, eventually using six pitchers. Kyle Bellamy (0-1) took the loss after yielding two runs in one-third of an inning.

"We didn’t play the game well today. No question about that," Morris said. "We lost a ball in the sun. We had a couple balls we could have caught in the outfield. Scott was all over the place, and he had been pitching really well for the last six or seven starts. And their bullpen shut us down."

After Pitts departed, Gavin Logsdon (2-0), Kyle Hollander and Trystan Magnuson combined to shut out the Hurricanes. Hollander, a transfer from Oklahoma State, was most impressive, striking out five in four hitless innings.

It was Louisville’s first NCAA Tournament victory and put Miami in the unusual position of having to fight back in the loser’s bracket.

"We’ve just got to go out there and forget about this," Tekotte said. "We’ve got to get hot anyway if we’re going to win the whole thing. We should be able to beat anybody if we’re going to go to the places we want to go. We’ve got to win four in a row to get out of the regional. Every inning is crucial."

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