The most disappointing Louisville baseball season of the Dan McDonnell era ended the only way it could have: With a thud.
Cardinal pitching surrendered five runs before recording an out as 11th-seeded U of L was blasted by 14th-seeded Pitt, 16-8, in a first round matchup from Charlotte that didn’t conclude until the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The Louisville offense showed the same tenacity it has all season long, striking for five runs in the home half of the second inning to tie the score. Once
again, U of L’s arms weren’t up to the task as Pitt notched six runs in the fourth and four more an inning to blow the game wide open.
After being ranked 8th in the country in the preseason D1Baseball.com top 25 poll, Louisville finishes its 2026 campaign with an overall record of 30-27. The Cardinals rank last or next-to-last in the ACC in virtually every major pitching category, spoiling a historic individual season from new conference home run king Tague Davis.
Now comes the really interesting part. Dan McDonnell’s contract is up after this year. He’s currently the 12th highest-paid coach in the country. I don’t think there’s any world where Josh Heird fires him or forces him out, but I do think difficult conversations, particularly about the program’s woeful pitching pretty much every year since COVID, are going to have to take place.
The College World Series run last summer was fun as hell, but Louisville has now missed the NCAA Tournament in four of the last six seasons. In order for that to not become even more of the norm, it feels like this needs to be an offseason of change for the program.
