ST. BONAVENTURE (1-2) at LOUISVILLE (0-3)
Friday – Sunday, Feb. 23-25
Louisville, Ky.

SERIES OVERVIEW
The St. Bonaventure baseball team makes the trip to Louisville for a four-game set with the Cardinals this weekend. Originally slated for three games, the teams are now scheduled to play a doubleheader on Friday at 2 p.m. with two games scheduled for seven innings each. The teams will then get together for nine-inning games on Saturday and Sunday. All four games will be streamed on ACC Network Extra through the ESPN+ app and there will be a radio stream available as well for each contest. For live streaming links, check our schedule page.

OPENING WEEK LOOK BACK
St. Bonaventure played at The Citadel on opening weekend, taking one of three games to begin the season.
After a struggle in the opener that saw The Citadel jump for seven runs in the first inning on the way to a 14-2 win last Friday, the Bonnies turned the tables a day later with an offensive explosion that resulted in a 22-10 victory. In the rubber game, Bona led with nine outs to go, 4-3, but a five-run seventh inning led to an 8-4 Citadel win.

ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS
Last Saturday's 22-run performance was one of the best days of offense for the Bonnies baseball program in recent memory. It represented the most runs in a game for Bona's since posting 24 in a win over Ohio back in 2014. SBU has scored more runs in a game just four times during the program's Division I era which dates back to 1986. The Bonnies finished with 20 hits as well, marking the 15^th time a Bona team has registered 20 or more hits in a game.

STRONG STARTS

• Junior David Marshall Jr. made a strong first impression in his first games in a Bona uniform last weekend. The shortstop transfer from DuPage College in Illinois slashed .538/.571/.846 with seven hits and seven RBIs. Three of his hits went for extra bases including two doubles and a triple.
• Grad student Jack Putney had a solid first week at the plate, too, going 5-for-11 with a pair of two-run homers in last Saturday's win at The Citadel for his first career multi-HR game.
• Another Bona newcomer, junior Robert Mannino went 4-for-4 in his debut last Saturday with three RBIs.
• This Friday's game 1 projected starter Chance Moore was solid in relief during his first game on the mound with the Bonnies last weekend. He worked five innings, allowing just one earned run on six hits with two strikeouts and no walks.

WELCOME BACK
The Bonnies welcomed back two players after sitting out all or most of last season due to injury. Redshirt junior utility man Jagger Nucci missed all of last year due to a knee injury, serving as first base coach while sidelined a year ago. He got a start last weekend and collected a hit and an RBI in his return.

Sophomore outfielder Jayce Tharnish played in 13 games last year, all starts including 12 in center, before being lost for the rest of the year due to injury. Now back healthy, he figures to split time in left with Mannino.

NOTABLES

• Putney will play in his 100^th career collegiate game, all with SBU, on Friday.
• Graduate Jackson DeJohn saw time at first base in last weekend's series. A veteran of 122 career games including 115 starts, he's seen nearly all of his time behind the plate since joining the program in 2020. Freshman Antonio Cordeiro saw his first time catching last weekend, appearing in all three games including a start as he collected his first collegiate hit, a double.
• Sophomore reliever Noah Czajkowski worked a career-high 3.1 innings last Sunday at The Citadel.
• Thirteen players made their Bonaventure debuts last weekend at The Citadel.

 
ANALYTICALLY SPEAKING
Freshman Antonio Cordeiro had the highest exit velocity last week of any Bonnies hitter at 108.08 mph. Marshall (104.5), Putney (103.2), Adam Rankie (101.4) and Mannino (101.2) all logged rockets as well.

On the mound, Michael Salina touched 98 mph in his start last Saturday while Czajkowski (92 mph) and Ryan O'Connell (91) were the other heat sheet leaders.
 

BONNIES VS. THE ACC
St. Bonaventure will play an ACC opponent for the first time since beating Boston College, 15-14, on March 1, 2008. SBU outlasted BC in 11 innings that day in Florida at a neutral site. Boston College scored two in the 11^th for a 14-12 lead, but the Bonnies scored three runs on four hits, capped by a walk-off single by Randy Moley to win it in the bottom of the inning. SBU had 23 hits on the day, including Moley who went 6-for-7 at the plate along with Kevin Suminski's effort of three hits, just a double shy of the cycle. Current Bonnies associate head coach B.J. Salerno was a junior catcher on that team and he recorded three hits with two RBIs and two runs scored that afternoon.

The Bonnies will play at another ACC foe, Pittsburgh, for a midweek contest March 6 as well. 
 

ABOUT LOUISVILLE

• Louisville enters this weekend seeking a first win in 2024 after opening up 0-2 in Tampa last weekend. Both of those games were heartbreakers – U of L lost the opener to Indiana State, 8-7, and also dropped a 4-3 final vs. UConn. Xavier also scored a 9-1 midweek win in Louisville's home opener Wednesday.
• Senior lefty Sebastian Gongora was named a preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. He was the 2023 Horizon League Pitcher of the Year after going 10-1 with a 3.25 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 88.2 innings with Wright State before transferring.
• The Cardinals were picked fifth out of seven teams in the ACC Atlantic Division in the ACC Preseason Poll, behind Wake Forest, Clemson, NC State and Florida State and ahead of Notre Dame and Boston College.
• Louisville returned seven starters from last year's lineup and 10 pitchers off last year's staff. Louisville ranked top 25 in the country in both ERA (4.39) and hits allowed per nine (8.3) a year ago.
• The program has been dominant in non-conference games, going 154-30 between 2016-23 against non-conference foes during the regular season.

 
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