Louisville star Eddie King Jr: "We knew we had a special team"

The last few seasons for the Louisville baseball program have not been up to its standards, as the ‘Cards missed the NCAA Tournament in three of their past four campaigns. In 2025, however, we saw a return to glory for coach Dan McDonnell‘s team, as Louisville is headed back to the Men’s College World Series for the first time since 2019.

Louisville senior center fielder Eddie King Jr. has played a massive part in this season’s success, as he’s hitting for a .362 average with 18 doubles and 17 home runs this season. He provided the go-ahead RBI-double in the Louisville Super Regional Final win over Miami, propelling his ‘Cards back to Omaha.

He spoke about overcoming adversity this season at Thursday’s Men’s College World Series Media Day Press Conferences.

“It’s hard to not have adversity playing a baseball season,” King said. “We had guys stepping up all the time. For an outfielder, Michael Lippie stepped up big-time when we’ve needed him. Just having guys that can back people up and step up when we need them… that’s huge for us.”

For the 14th time in 19 seasons, Louisville hit the 40-win mark under coach McDonnell. This season was full of ups and downs, whether it was injury-related or losing six of their last seven games heading into the NCAA Tournament, but the Cardinals persevered and are headed back to baseball heaven.

King says Matt Klein has been welcomed re-addition to lineup

“All of us knew in the fall that we were a special team,” King continued. “We just knew we had to put everything together. You know, the season started and we had a really good first weekend. Then, injuries started to happen. I got injured and then we lost [Matt] Klein. We knew we had a special team no matter who was in the lineup, but we just had to put it all together at the same time. Our guys ended up doing that even though we got knocked down. We fought right back.”

Klein, who was injured in March 22’s win over Virginia Tech, finally returned to the lineup on May 20. In his seven games back in the lineup, the junior catcher is hitting for a .272 average with two home runs (both in Louisville Regional) and four RBI.

“On the offensive side, it’s great having him in the lineup,” King said about teammate Matt Klein, who recently returned from injury. “You’ve got a really strong bat in Matt Klein, so it just makes us as hitters feel a lot better about ourselves. It takes a lot of pressure off a lot of batters, so having him back is key. He’s like one of the biggest parts of the lineup. I’m glad he’s back.”

Louisville opens play in the 2025 Men’s College World Series on Friday at 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET against Oregon State. It has never won a National Championship in baseball, but is looking to change that this season.