I’m not sure who played worse D last night — Vandy’s guy in the Hot Corner, Jason Esposito, or, uh oh, yours truly?

Esposito went E-5 twice in the top of the 8th with two gone, allowing U of L the insurance runs it needed to advance to next weekend’s Super Regional.

I allowed a bounce back foul to slowly slip by me, preventing me from taking a souvenir of U of L’s win home to the Mrs. While I’ve been beating myself up all day for my slow reaction time, which I’ve convinced myself is due to proximity to dotage, that’s a delusion. Even in Little League my reaction time was less than all-star quality. Sigh.

I’m sure Esposito and his Commodore teammates are feeling a lot worse.

The Cards’ 3 Ws in this regional were all aided by errors coughed up by their opponents. Dropped pop ups were epidemic.

So U of L slips into the next round. Sometimes you shoot the bear, sometimes the bear eats you, etc, etc, etc.. The reality of NCAA tournament play: Style points matter not in the least. Score more runs than your foe, no matter how they cross the plate, you move on. Survive and advance is the name of the game.

Besides it’s not like Louisville left its best game at Patterson Field, as it packs its bats and balls for the flight to Fullerton.

In the 9th last night, when another run or deux would have loosened the sphincter factor in the bottom of the inning, Card batters went down K/K/K on only ten pitches. During the evening, Chris Dominguez couldn’t find enough buckets to step in. Maybe it was those two HBPs in his first two regional at bats against IU. Josh Richmond perpetrated one of the ugliest at bats since, well, since I played for the Indians in the J.C.C. Little League back in 19noneofyourbusiness.

But, you know what, it matters not a bit now. The Cards got great pitching over the weekend from Marks, Kiekhefer, Self, Zych and Shaw. John Dao was amazing in the field last night, and had a truly major league at bat, which ended in a triple. Etc, etc, etc. I shan’t name them all. And enough guys delivered when necessary to stay alive.

I’ll have more about the upcoming encounters with Fullerton later in the week. This nine from Cali may very well be the most formidable one in the land. Bring ‘em on.

– Seedy K