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Meet the contenders coming to Kentucky for the 2017 ACC Tournament at Louisville Slugger Field. May 20, 2017
Gentry Estes/CJ

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Louisville was the No. 1 seed in the 2016 ACC Baseball Tournament. The Cards were the No. 2 seed.

The list of Louisville baseball accomplishments grows by the day. Yet there is one inescapable hole in the Cardinals’ resumethey’re hoping to fill this week at Slugger Field.

That effort starts at 7 p.m. Thursday when top-seeded U of L takes on No. 12 seed Notre Dame in its first pool-play game of the ACC Tournament.

In three regular seasons in the Atlantic Coast Conference, U of L has compiled a league-best 70 wins against just 20 losses. The Cards (46-9) have won three consecutive Atlantic Division titles, including this year. 

And yet, despite being the No. 1 seed in the 2015 tournament and No. 2 seed in 2016, Dan McDonnell’s teams are 2-4 in the ACC Tournament.

On Monday, McDonnell joked that perhaps his team’s three-game losing streak to end the regular season could actually help U of L turn its luck in the league tournament.

“You want to play well,” McDonnell said. “The bottom line is we didn’t play well last week. … We address it. The past few years we haven’t played great in the ACC Tournament. We hit the reset button and we have a great week of practice and play well in the (NCAA Tournament) regionals. Maybe we’re a week ahead of schedule.”

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Like McDonnell, Louisville’s players this week didn’t seem all that concerned about their current three-game losing skid.

They want to keep an even keel, they said. They don’t get too excited about wins. They don’t get too down about losses. And they certainly won’t panic about a losing streak, even if it’s the first three-game skid for U of L since March 2015.

“We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” said shortstop Devin Hairston, the ACC’s defensive player of the year.

What U of L has done is rack up 875 total bases, helping the Cards log a .468 slugging percentage as a team, a figure that ranks 27th in college baseball. 

On the mound, Louisville has the nation’s third-best earned-run average (2.76) and the 15th-best strikeouts-per-nine-innings ratio.

The individual numbers are just as gaudy.

Left-handed ace Brendan McKay, the ACC player of the year who is expected to start against Notre Dame, is considered one of the nation’s top players, with an 8-3 pitching record and a 2.22 ERA to go with his .361 batting average and 15 home runs.

Drew Ellis, U of L’s third baseman, is 18th nationally in batting average (.387) and sixth in slugging percentage (.737). 

Closer Lincoln Henzman leads the nation in saves with 16. And he has only allowed four earned runs and 23 hits or walks in 31 innings.

“Everything just kind of feels like it’s felt in the past,” McDonnell said. 

It really does feel like that: Louisville has been dominant all season, winning all but one three-game series. The Cards went 8-3 against teams ranked in the current USA TODAY Coaches Poll. They tore through a 19-game winning streak at one point.

And they are a strong bet to receive a third consecutive top-eight national seed, which would mean hosting rights to an NCAA regional and an NCAA super regional (should the Cards advance to the second weekend).

But first, Louisville has a chance to take care of that ACC Tournament void.

“We talk a lot about playing great baseball all the way through the season,” Ellis said. “It’s hard to go to the postseason and flip the switch and say, ‘OK, now we’re going to play good baseball.’ I don’t think that’s the case for us. … It starts at the beginning of the season, it goes through the middle and it continues. We’re excited for the opportunity to play in the ACC Tournament here in Louisville.”