Louisville pitcher cusses out batter, season ends in the very next inning

Louisville baseball's season has certainly been a stellar one, finishing the regular season with a 43-13 record before making a postseason run to the College World Series in Omaha. After a gutty performance against Mississippi State to keep their season alive on Thursday evening, the Cards moved on to face the Vanderbilt Commodores in yet another win or go home game for the team. In a back-and-forth effort for much of the evening, Louisville found themselves up 2-1 going into the top of the eighth inning. UofL starting pitcher Luke Smith then struck out his first batter, forced a ground out, and then struck out Vandy's Julian Infante to end the inning. After the impressive strikeout, Smith decided to flip the entire narrative of his dominant pitching performance by cussing out Infante on his way back to the dugout. "F--- you!" the Louisville pitcher yelled. "F--- you!" To no one's surprise, ESPN caught the entire exchange on camera, airing the moment on live television. https://twitter.com/RandyScottESPN/status/1142246564087422976 In the top of the ninth, Smith forced a ground-out before walking the next batter and giving up an RBI double in the following at-bat to tie the game at two runs apiece. From there, the potty-mouth Louisville pitcher was pulled from the game, with his replacement immediately giving up back-to-back hits and one run. 3-2, Commodores. In the bottom of the ninth, the Cards could only get one runner on base, with Vandy forcing two strikeouts and a pop-up to end the game. Vanderbilt wins, while Louisville heads home with a big L. https://twitter.com/NCAACWS/status/1142257733472677888 After the game, Vanderbilt DH Philip Clarke told the Tennessean that Smith's fine choice of words gave them the spark they needed to mount a comeback in the ninth inning. "That was the big turning point in the game," Clarke said. "Things like that definitely fire us up." Karma, ain't it a beautiful thing? [mobile_ad]