When Dan McDonnell's Louisville Cardinals took the field in 2026, expectations were sky-high. Coming off their sixth College World Series appearance, the team opened the season ranked 11th in the USA TODAY preseason coaches poll and projected to finish fourth in the ACC. With veteran experience across the roster, McDonnell—now in his 20th season—had every reason to believe this would be another championship-caliber year.
Fast forward three months, and the narrative has shifted dramatically. The Cardinals are now unranked, sitting 11th in the conference, and on the outside looking in at the NCAA Tournament picture. With just seven games left in the regular season, they're searching for only their third ACC series win. It's a stunning fall for a program that just last year was competing on college baseball's biggest stage.
Louisville isn't alone in this struggle. They're one of three Power Four programs from the 2025 College World Series currently on pace to miss the postseason—joining national champion LSU (the preseason No. 1) and Arizona. For the Cardinals to reach the Big Dance, it will take a strong finish and perhaps a run at the ACC Tournament title.
The numbers tell a tough story. Louisville sits at 26-23 overall and 10-14 in conference play, currently mired in a five-game losing streak after getting swept at Wake Forest and falling to Vanderbilt 12-6 on Tuesday. The team is desperately seeking positive momentum as they travel to Miami for their second-to-last ACC series, starting Thursday.
Miami presents a formidable challenge. The Hurricanes are fifth in the league standings and projected as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament by USA TODAY, D1Baseball, and On3 (Baseball America has them as a 3-seed). Louisville will wrap up conference play by hosting No. 25 Virginia, another consensus projected 2-seed, next weekend.
McDonnell isn't shying away from accountability. After the team's series loss to Stanford on April 12, he put the responsibility squarely on his shoulders: "When we don't play as well as we can play, when we don't show a little more toughness, when we don't show a little more fight, we don't have as much success as I think we're capable of having... it's my fault. It starts with me."
For Cardinals fans, the road ahead is steep, but college baseball has a way of writing unexpected stories. Whether this team can script a late-season rally remains to be seen—but one thing is certain: every game from here on out carries postseason weight.