May 23, 2003

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS - Second baseman Nick Haley was 4-for-4 with a walk, left fielder Josh Bolen drove in four runs and pitcher Scott Barber had 10 strikeouts as Louisville cruised to an 11-4 win over South Florida at the Conference USA Tournament at Tulane's Turchin Stadium on Friday.

Louisville improves to 34-22 overall with the win and advances to face host Tulane in the semifinals of the tournament on Saturday. South Florida falls to 31-27 with the loss.

Louisville wasted little time in getting on the board, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the first. Dave Williams, Jr., led off the game with a single before J.T. LaFountain brought him home with a two-run home run to right field one batter later. Haley added another two-run homer in the second, the first round-tripper of his career, and Josh Bolen scored on a sacrifice fly in the third to give Louisville a 5-0 lead.

South Florida got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third when Jermaine Smith scored from second on a Mike Cunningham single. But Louisville tacked on two more runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings to push its lead to 11-1.

South Florida came through with a run in the bottom of the seventh to avoid falling prey to the 10-run rule. Travis Brown drew a walk to start the inning and scored a batter later on Kris Howell's double to center. Jeff Baisley added a solo home run to lead off the eighth for South Florida and Mike Choquette scored in the ninth for the final margin.

South Florida struggled defensively, committing three errors and falling victim to six wild pitches, a past ball and two hit batters. Bolen finished 1-for-4 at the plate for Louisville, but drove in four runs. Barber scattered nine hits and allowed four runs in a complete game outing, finishing with 10 strikeouts for his eighth win of the season (8-4).

Starter Chris Delaney (3-3) took the loss for South Florida, giving up four hits and four earned runs in just an inning and a third.

NOTES: This was the eighth time that Louisville and South Florida have squared off in the Conference USA Tournament, but just the second time that the Cardinals have won.

Louisville advances to the semifinal round of the C-USA Tournament for the first time since the 1998 Tourney, which was also played in New Orleans. The Cardinals were eliminated that year by Tulane.

Louisville	2 2 1   2 0 2   2 0 0 - 11 15 1
South Florida	0 0 1   0 0 0   1 1 1 -  4  9 3