Cardinals Outlast Clemson for Friday Victory

Friday, April 24

Louisville, Ky.

6:00 PM

University of Louisville

24-18, 8-11

Clemson

26-17, 6-13

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Clemson	1	0	1	0	2	0	4	0	2	10	11	5
Louisville	2	0	0	3	0	5	0	3	X	13	14	1

Ben Slanker after a home run against Clemson.

Photo by: Taris Smith | Louisville Athletics

April 25, 2026 | Baseball

Box Score PDF Box Score

By: Stephen Williams

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville baseball team battled through two rain delays and earned a 13-10 victory over Clemson on Friday night at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Louisville (24-18, 8-11 ACC) tallied its third consecutive victory and its first in an ACC series opener this season.

Clemson (26-17, 6-13) struck first on Friday night, getting a two-out solo homer in the first inning.

The Cardinals did one better in the bottom half. Zion Rose worked a walk and Tague Davis launched a two-run homer over the right field wall. The long ball was the 25^th of the season for the sophomore, matching Louisville's single-season record set by Randy Delph in 1974 and Chris Dominguez in 2009.

The Tigers tied the game at two with another homer in the third before the elements began to play a factor.

Tied at two, Clemson looked as if it would keep the Cardinals off the scoreboard in the fourth. However, a potential inning-ending groundball to second was thrown away allowing Alex Alicea to score. Rose and Davis followed with singles, the latter of which drove in Lucas Moore. Rose would then score on another misplay on the infield to give the Cards a 5-2 lead.

Clemson got two runs back in the fifth, however the Cardinals opened things up with a five-run sixth.

Bayram Hot and Jimmy Nugent drove in runs with groundballs on the infield with the bases loaded and Ben Slanker unloaded on the first pitch he saw and sent it onto the berm in left to make it 10-4. The homer was the eighth of the year for Slanker.

A third Clemson solo homer made it a 10-5 game in the seventh before the second rain delay of the night stopped the game for more than an hour. After the resumption, the Tigers pushed three more runs across to get within two.

Louisville got three of the runs back in the eighth. Moore singled home one with Rose and Hot adding RBIs later in the frame.

Clemson made things interesting in the ninth. The Tigers got a pair of runs home and had the tying runs on base with two away. However, Ty Starke was able to get a strikeout to finish things off and secure the victory.

All nine Louisville starters recorded at least one hit on the night. Five different Cardinals recorded multiple hits with Davis and Slanker driving in three apiece.

Wyatt Danilowicz (4-2) earned the win after five innings of work, allowing four runs and striking out five. Peter Michael turned in a scoreless outing out of the bullpen, while Starke took care of the final three outs.

Louisville and Clemson continue the weekend set on Saturday night with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on the ACC Network.

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