Louisville Cardinals home baseball game vs. UNC Tar Heels suspended due to bomb threat

Louisville’s home baseball game with UNC was suspended Sunday afternoon because of a bomb threat to the stadium, a school spokesman confirmed to ESPN.

John Drees, a school spokesman, told ESPN that police received word of a bomb at Jim Patterson Stadium, where Louisville plays its home baseball games. The threat emerged from an on-line forum used by both students and athletes, Drees said, and someone on the forum reported the threat to police.

“We take all threats as credible until we determine otherwise,” said Drees, a university spokesman. “At this point, they are about to begin sweeping the stadium.”

North Carolina led Louisville 5-1 in the top of the sixth when a group of police officers approached the athletic director’s suite with news of the threat. School officials communicated immediately with on-field officials and the game was halted between batters.

Teams immediately cleared the field and the entire stadium emptied. An athletics spokesman estimated there were at least 2,000 fans at the stadium on a sun-splashed day in the mid-60s.

Drees said that both the K-9 Units and bomb techs from the Louisville Metro Police Department are on-site to sweep the stadium. It hasn’t been determined if teams will return to finish the game. If that does happen, fans would not be allowed back in the stadium.

The game was delayed a shortly before 3 p.m. EST.