The University of Louisville baseball team is preparing for the program’s first College World Series appearance since 2007, and just the second in school history.
This will be the first trip to the tournament in Omaha, Nebraska for coach Dan McDonnell’s players, but he’s been there twice, both as a player (with the Citadel in 1990) and a coach (U of L in '07).
"I learned an awful lot about that," McDonnell said today. "So I’ll just try to help our kids keep the mental clutter, as we call it, on the outside, and try to keep them focused in on just playing good baseball."
The Cards advanced to the College World Series with a two-game sweep of Vanderbilt last weekend.
U of L will face Indiana in first round action next weekend. The Hoosiers captured their first World Series berth with two straight victories over Florida State.
The Cards dropped two of their three regular season games against IU.
"When we get down to Omaha we’ll be prepared," said U of L outfielder Coco Johnson. "They’re a great team, though. I guess the first two times we overlooked them a little bit, but we know how good they are and we’ll prepare for them."
The College World Series begins with double-elimination play on Saturday. The final two teams will play a best-of-three series starting June 24.
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