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When Louisville plays Indiana at 7 p.m. today in the first round of the NCAA baseball regional in Louisville, Ky., it will be the third time this season the two teams have met.
The first time was April 7, when Louisville pounded the Hoosiers 15-1 at home. Freshman Ryan Wright, a former Homestead standout, played third base that day and had a massive game against IU, going 4 for 5 with a walk, two runs scored and three RBI.
The second meeting was two weeks later in Bloomington. Wright played left field and went 2 for 5 with an RBI.
This time, when game No. 3 begins, Wright will be in right field.
The former Indiana all-star shortstop played that position this season for the Cardinals when their starting senior was injured. Although he might not have found a defensive home, he’s become an offensive threat in his first season at Louisville.
His .343 batting average is fourth on the team, his 62 RBI are third, and he has 16 doubles, two triples and four home runs while playing all 59 games.
It’s just that he’s moved about in the field.
“I never played outfield in my life,” Wright said in a phone interview Thursday. “I struggled a little bit at first, but I was pretty natural at taking fly balls. Outfield is a little easier to play, I think, than infield. I’m still in right field. I wasn’t so comfortable playing left field a couple games, but right field feels pretty comfortable to me.”
The Cardinals (44-15) are the No. 1 seed in their regional and play No. 4 seed IU (32-25) in the double-elimination tournament that ends Monday. The survivor will move on in the NCAA tourney.
Wright comes in as one of the team’s hottest hitters. In leading Louisville to the Big East tournament championship, Wright hit .368 in the five games, going 7 of 19 with six runs and six RBI.
Wright, who might have to face IU relief pitcher Chris Squires, a former Canterbury standout, will also be reunited with former Homestead teammate Kyle Leiendecker, who is a sophomore pitcher with the Hoosiers.
Parkland College freshman Bob Glover (Homestead) hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning recently to send Parkland to the NJCCA Division II World Series in Enid, Okla. Parkland (47-9) was to play Kankakee (Ill.) Community College on Thursday. Also on the Parkland team are Kevin
Kiermaier (Bishop Luers) and Tyler Watts (Bishop Luers). … Ball State senior Amber
Williams (Concordia) will compete in the 100-meter hurdles and 100-meter dash preliminaries today at the NCAA Mideast Regional in Louisville. The finals will be held Saturday. … Recent IPFW graduate Patrick Kelley (Blackhawk Christian) was named to the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District 5 first golf team. He averaged a 4.0 grade-point average this past year. … Indiana Tech pitchers Zach Palmer (Bishop Luers), Eric Sherrill (Elmhurst) and John Toschlog were named Daktronics-NAIA baseball scholar atheltes.
