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Super Regional | Calm Cards ready – The Courier-Journal

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Jeff Greer, @jeffgreer_cj 6:55 p.m. EDT June 5, 2015

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Louisville’s Dan McDonnell talks about their upcoming series with Cal State Fullerton.
Scott Utterback, The C-J

The sounds of an intense ping pong match in the players’ lounge found their way through the doors, providing some background noise as University of Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell sat alone at a table and navigated Friday’s super regional preview press conference.

McDonnell spoke in a calm tone, betraying no indication whatsoever that his team is two wins away from a third consecutive College World Series berth. He was asked what, if anything, might keep him up Friday evening before his Cardinals take the field at 11 a.m. Saturday for Game 1 of an NCAA tournament super regional against Cal State Fullerton.

“I’m a spiritual person,” McDonnell said, the ping pong match raging on down the hall. “I trust my kids. I spend time in prayer. I’m not nervous. I’m going to sleep well tonight.”

McDonnell’s third-seeded Cards (46-16) are in a familiar spot. They will host a best-of-three super regional series at Jim Patterson Stadium for the second straight year. They can sleep in their own beds. They can work out at their own facilities. They can play ping pong in their own lounge.

Louisville was supposed to get to this point after setting an ACC record with 25 conference wins. The Cards reached as high as No. 2 in some polls. They swept ninth-ranked Virginia and won series against No. 7 Florida State and No. 10 Miami.

Brendan McKay, a lefty from the Pittsburgh area, won ACC and national freshman of the year honors, and four other Cardinals also made the All-ACC first team.

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Armed with one of the best pitching staffs in Division I baseball, a solid defense and an aggressive offense, Louisville is here because it should be. And the Cards acted like it on Friday and throughout the week.

Nobody embodied that calmness, that supposed-to-be-here feeling like McDonnell, whose even-keeled way of approaching things has become so ingrained in this program that instances like him moving to tears last summer felt wildly out of character.

“He’s always really intense throughout the whole year,” catcher Will Smith said. “He wants the whole regular season to be like the postseason, so nothing changes.”

The talk before the regional this past weekend was all about returning to what made U of L so good this season, about staying cool and consistent even through recent troubles.

Kyle Funkhouser, the ace righty who will start Saturday’s game, had struggled in recent weeks, but he calmly went back to what he does best last Friday, and he pitched like a No. 1 starter should.

Nick Solak and Corey Ray, the sophomores who ignited U of L’s offense last postseason and most of this year, labored through two rough regional games before loosening their bat grips and going a combined 5 of 8 with six RBI in Sunday’s regional final.

Story continues after the video

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Louisville’s Sutton Whiting and Nick Solak talk about the upcoming series with Cal State Fullerton.
Scott Utterback, The C-J

Devin Hairston, whose batting average hovered around .185 through the regular season, quietly went about fixing his swing after the ACC tournament and raised that batting clip 18 points with a breakthrough regional.

But you’d never guess that those guys have broken loose from some struggles. They were too collected in their answers, plainly put and earnest as they spoke in interviews. They never felt upset when they were struggling; they never felt thrilled when they thrived.

That’s why this week, this Friday, with so much at stake and so much on the line, felt like any other week this season for Louisville baseball. They’ve been here before. They’ve spent months practicing a balanced, even approach. And now they are putting it to good use with more and more fans and TV cameras around them.

It all starts with McDonnell.

“I trust this group,” McDonnell said. “I like this group a lot. I’ve just got to stay out of the way.”

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).