Softball doubleheader today





Louisville' hard hitting senior third baseman leads the
Cards in home runs and walks. She has 210 career hits.
Bemis up, Chelsea!  

 
WEDNESDAY via CARDINAL COUPLE

-Softball plays two today.

-Baseball falls to Cats 3-2

-WE translate the recruiting scenario

-Other assorted nonsense

The University of Louisville softball team takes on the Connecticut Huskies in a doubleheader scheduled to start at noon today. Louisville (30-10) is on an 11 game winning streak and is positioned third in the BIG EAST with a 8-1 record.

UConn comes into the contest at 15-16 and are 3-2 in the BIG EAST. Last time out, the Huskies defeated Hartford 8-5. The Cards are coming off a 'weekend in Pittsburgh' (what a great title for a movie!) where they got the brooms out ans swept the three game series.

Louisville's hot streak is being handled from the pitching circle by freshman Caralisa Connell. She's 17-4 on the season and has the last eleven wins for the Cards. They're getting a lot of production in the field and at the plate from several other freshmen as well. Catcher Maggie Ruckenbrod has thrown out ten runners this year attempting to pilfer the pillow...which is a season and career record for the Cards. Freshman right fielder Hannah Kiyohara leads the Cards in batting at .397 and the Cards are also getting great play from frosh Katie Keller and Taner Fowler.

The left side of the infield is secured by seniors Chelsea Bemis and Colby Wherry. They're four year starters and have over 400 career hits between the two of them. A lot of the Cards success can be attributed to their steady glove play and team leadership.

We think the Cards are poised for a great rest of the regular season and deep run in the BIG EAST and NCAA Tournaments. We'd like to see injured pitcher Tori Collins back soon, even though Connell has been pitching outstandingly. Always good to have two top notch hurlers to choose from.

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Louisville baseball fell to the Kentucky Wildcats yesterday at Jim Patterson Stadium 3-2. Rough start for the Cards...down 2-0 after one inning. The Cards did rally back to tie it at 2-2 before UK pushed the final run in. Kinda of like my darts team last night, slow out of the gate...a strong middle move and nothing left for the finish....which is also an apt description of the hay burners I usually wager on.

WE noticed that the two blogs we refer people to for men's sports updates http://www.uoflcardgame.com/ and  http://www.cardinaldominance.net/  hadn't posted articles about it as of 8 a.m.Wednesday. For more details on the game, there's always http://www.uoflsports.com/ . WE recommend all three as good daily reads. Another good source for Cardinal athletics is Howie Lindsey's Rivals site http://www.cardinalsports.com/. Seems as if everyone is concentrating on whether Richard Pitino is coming back to be Rick Pitino's assistant coach. Some say it's already a done deal. We couldn't figure out why he left in the first place....


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The women's college basketball recruiting battles are kicking into high gear as Louisville is hopeful of adding up to three additional freshmen to the 2011-12 class. Sara Hammond is signed, sealed and delivered. Jude Schimmel looks to be a certainty to show up on campus and Monney Esther Niamke has verbally stated she's headed to the Cards. The Bria Smith soap opera is drawing great ratings...including a rather haughty declaration from King Geno and the Dogs that they are not pursuing her. (Translation = She told them she wasn't interested in them.)

We've also noticed that Quaneisha McCurty is popping up on Facebook proudly sporting her IU Hoosier clothing apparel and appears to be deeply in love with the 'school she decided on' (Translation = Louisville lost interest and IU was the next suitor in line). We wish her well and hope she gets qualified academically

WE love all the talent that Jeff Walz is squirrelling away at Louisville but name recognition and RIVALS Top 100 rankings don't always equate into automatic success. It's the year round and off season conditioning that makes the player. The continuous striving to get a little better each day. Working hard on the parts of your game that need improvement and dedication to the details. One of our favorite Walz axioms is: "There are girls who like to play basketball and there are girls who are basketball players." We'll see how many of each are on this current Cardinal roster...

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"Gonzaga Mary" (another great potential movie title) checks in quite regularly these days...extolling the success of the Bulldogs women's basketball program and our purported disdain for it. Her last communique reminded us of Courtney Vandersloot's 3rd pick achievement in the recent WNBA Draft. That got us thinking...something we've been accused of doing way too little of by some. Louisville played against five out of the top twelve picks in the 2011 WNBA Draft. Maya Moore, Vandersloot, Amber Harris, Ta'Shia Phillips and Victoria Dunlap. We were thinking that this stat might be the highest out of all the women's college basketball teams.

We like Mary's e-mails and her love for Gonzaga sports. We can't claim that we created the monicker "the Fighting Vandersloot's", however and have never referred to the awesome hoopster as Vanderslut. WE think she'll make a good WNBA player. We would have liked to seen that Louisville vs. Gonzaga matchup played with a healthy Monique Reid, though.
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