OMAHA, Neb. – Parker French and Travis Duke limited Louisville to four hits, and Texas manufactured runs in three straight innings to beat the Cardinals 4-1 in a College World Series elimination game Monday.
The Longhorns (44-20) ended a four-game CWS losing streak dating to 2009 and will play Vanderbilt or UC Irvine in another elimination game Wednesday. Louisville (50-17) went 0-2 in the CWS for the second straight year and is 1-6 in three appearances in Omaha.
French (7-5) held the Cardinals to four singles in 7 1-3 innings, and Duke retired their last five batters for his first save.
Louisville sophomore starter Anthony Kidston (9-1) lost for the first time in 15 decisions as a collegian and the Cardinals committed four errors, just as they did in their elimination-game loss to Oregon State last year.
Texas opened the scoring on Ben Johnson's sacrifice fly after Zane Guritz doubled leading off the third inning. The Longhorns added a run in the fourth on Kacy Clemens' RBI groundout and another in the fifth when Mark Payton came home on second baseman Zach Lucas' throwing error.
Louisville pulled to 3-1 in the eighth on Cole Sturgeon's groundout, but the Longhorns scored an unearned run in the top of the ninth to make it a three-run game again.
French turned in another strong performance after working six shutout innings in a win over Houston in super regionals. He has allowed three runs in 20 innings in three NCAA tournament appearances. The Longhorns' pitching staff has a 1.35 ERA over its last eight games.
Louisville had won 12 of 13 games this season, and 17 of 19 the last two seasons, in games started by Kidston.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.