Zuppe Walk-Off Homer Lifts Louisville Past South Range 2-1 – Baseball
Louisville 2, Louisville 1
Bryce Zuppe blasted a walk-off solo homer in the bottom of the seventh to lift the Louisville Leopards past the visiting South Range Raiders 2-1 Saturday Afternoon at the Field of Dreams. With the win, Louisville improves to 18-6 on the season.
The game remained scoreless until the sixth inning as both starters were superb. Eddie Budinski pitched 4 scoreless innings, gave up just 2 hits, and struck out 6 for the Leopards. Jake Gehring pitched 6 innings, allowed just 1 run on 4 hits, and struck out 8 for the Raiders.
The one run Gehring did surrender came in the bottom of the sixth inning. South Range broke the ice in the top half of the frame when Mike Cunningham hit a 2-out RBI single to score Brandon Youngs from third. Louisville returned the favor when Caleb Prasco doubled home Dillon Rebuck who had singled in the at-bat before. The Leopards managed to knot the game at 1-1 in the sixth despite two quick outs to start their turn.
A pair of errors put Louisville in a jam in the top of the seventh. The Raiders put two runners on with one out when a rare 5-6-3 groundout was recored. The ball kicked up off of Rebuck at third and was picked up on one bounce by Davis Burick at Shortstop. Burick fired to first where Prasco fully extended to make the play just in time. The next batter popped out to second baseman Dillon English to vanquish the threat.
The Leopards started the seventh inning just like they began the sixth with a pair of quick outs. It certainly felt like it was in the cards to play extra innings, but Zuppe had other ideas. The Junior Right Fielder ripped a 1-0 pitch over the right center field wall and emphatically yelled “LET’S GO” to his teammates in the dugout as he rounded first. He was greeted by a host of Leopards at the plate as the boys in blue flourished in a frenzy of excitement.
The shot was Zuppe’s 3rd of the season and homer number 8 for Louisville as a team this year. It is also the first known walk-off home run by a Leopard since Kyle Smith hit a walk-off winner in 2005. Zuppe finished with 2 of Louisville’s 5 hits in the game.
On the mound, Jordan Shearer earned the victory for the Leopards to remain perfect at 5-0 for the season. Shearer pitched the final three innings in relief giving up 1 unearned run on 2 hits, and striking out 1.
South Range was led on offense by Jared Bajerski who finished with 2 of the team’s 4 hits. The Raiders drop to 10-13 with the loss.
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UP NEXT: The Louisville Baseball Team will next travel to West Branch to take on the Warriors on Tuesday, May 8 at 5:00 PM looking to clinch a share of the NBC Title. JV will host West Branch at the same time.
VARSITY BASEBALL BOX SCORE
LEOPARDS 2, RAIDERS 1
Team 123-456-7–R-H-E
South Range 000-001-0–1-4-2
Louisville 000-001-1–2-5-5
SOUTH RANGE RAIDERS BASEBALL VARSITY BATTING STATS
| Lineup | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jared Bajerski | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jaxon Anderson | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Brycen James | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ben Rivera | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Brandon Youngs | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jake Gehring | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Mike Cunningham | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Josh Steer | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kris Scandy | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 28 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
SOUTH RANGE RAIDERS BASEBALL VARSITY PITCHING STATS
| Pitching | IP | #P | S% | H | R | ER | SO | BB | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jake Gehring | 6.0 | 88 | .670 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| Brandon Youngs | 0.2 | 12 | .833 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | 6.2 | 100 | .690 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 1 |
LOUISVILLE LEOPARDS BASEBALL VARSITY BATTING STATS
| Lineup | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bryce Zuppe | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Cam King | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Davis Burick | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Cam Lingle | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Max Hartline | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Dillon Rebuck | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jack Davis | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Caleb Prasco | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Dom Mongiardo | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Dillon English | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jackson Kandel | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Austin Cummings | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Eddie Budinski | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Jordan Shearer | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Totals | 25 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
LOUISVILLE LEOPARDS BASEBALL VARSITY PITCHING STATS
| Pitching | IP | #P | S% | H | R | ER | SO | BB | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eddie Budinski | 4.0 | 54 | .704 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| Jordan Shearer | 3.0 | 41 | .707 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 7.0 | 95 | .705 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
Records: Louisville 18-6, South Range 10-13
JV: Louisville 16, South Range 6, 6 Innings
JV BASEBALL BOX SCORE
LEOPARDS 16, RAIDERS 6, 6 INNINGS
Team 123-456-7–R-H-E
Louisville 902-104–16-9-2
South Range 401-001–6-5-2
LOUISVILLE LEOPARDS BASEBALL JV BATTING STATS
| Lineup | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Pugh | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Andrew Figler | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Broc Pickens | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Jonah Harsh | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Grayson Beamer | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Tyler Jackson | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Logan Vanicek | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Justin Blyer | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Carter Rode | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Christian Marcelli | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Hunter Selander | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Totals | 27 | 16 | 9 | 14 | 10 | 5 |
LOUISVILLE LEOPARDS BASEBALL JV PITCHING STATS
| Pitching | IP | #P | S% | H | R | ER | SO | BB | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grayson Beamer | 5.0 | 89 | .573 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| Christian Marcelli | 1.0 | 22 | .545 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 6.0 | 111 | .568 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 0 |
SOUTH RANGE RAIDERS BASEBALL JV BATTING STATS
| Lineup | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dom P | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Luke B | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Brady D | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Mike P | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| MJ L | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Luke C | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Nolan S | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Garret S | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Gavin B | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Justin | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Totals | 25 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 8 |
SOUTH RANGE RAIDERS BASEBALL JV PITCHING STATS
| Pitching | IP | #P | S% | H | R | ER | SO | BB | HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike P | 3.0 | 101 | .485 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| Justin | 2.1 | 62 | .403 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Garret S | 0.2 | 2 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 6.0 | 165 | .461 | 9 | 16 | 15 | 5 | 10 | 0 |
Records: Louisville 16-3
