The UK baseball team swept the Louisville Cardinals in their season series with a 7-1 win at Cliff Hagan Stadium Tuesday night.

This sweep was the first time since 2006 that the Cats pulled off this feat.

In another strong outing, starting pitcher Jordan Cooper went six and two-thirds innings with five strikeouts, three walks and one earned run on five hits. Cooper has faced Louisville four times in his career with 19 and two-thirds innings pitched and only one earned run.

“It’s nothing, (pitching against Louisville),” said Cooper. “I just come out and try to do what I know how to do.”

Cooper was moved to the middle of the week role earlier in the year and since then has thrived.

“Yeah he’s been doing something different,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said. “He relaxed, I told him to relax and that’s just what happens. Sometimes you take a little pressure off.”

Not only was Cooper a big part of the sweep but Alex Phillips played a major role in the win. He came into the game in the sixth inning with runners on first and third and gave up an infield single, scoring the Cards’ first and only run of the game. Phillips then struck out the very next batter to end the inning.

Phillips only allowed one more base runner in the game when Louisville’s Ryan Seiz squeezed a single past third baseman Thomas McCarthy. The runner would not move past first as the next batter grounded out to end the game and complete the sweep.

“It knocks them down pretty quick putting three runs on them right away,” Braden Kapteyn said. “The pitching was great by Cooper and Phillips.”

Kapteyn also put his mark on the game when he hit a two-out home run off the scoreboard in left center field to put the Cats up 4-0. Not to be outdone by Kapteyn, UK first baseman Luke Maile hit a shot of his own that everyone knew it was gone when it left the bat.

Up next for the Cats are the Tigers from LSU in a three-game series this weekend.