Monday CARDINAL COUPLE...Softball goes to 27-0! CARDINAL COUPLE WBB Awards...Down to the NCAA WBB Great Eight

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


-Softball downs Pitt 2-1 to go to 27-0


-CARDINAL COUPLE'S WBB Awards


-And then there were eight


Louisville softball is now 27-0 after getting their third come from behind victory over Pittsburgh this weekend. CARDS WIN! 2-1.


Jordan Trimble smashed a two RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning to give the Cards the win. 


Neither team scored in the game until the sixth inning...a pitcher's duel between UofL's Caralisa Connell and Pitt's Savannah King. Pitt drew first blood with a Yvette Bravo double scoring Holly Stevens after five scoreless innings. 

Trailing by a run in the bottom of the sixth, Louisville started the inning with Katie Keller getting a single and taking second when Taner Fowler reached first on a fielders' error. Alicja Wolny drew a base on balls to set up Trimble's blast...which scored Keller and Fowler to make it 2-1 Cards.


Tori Collins came on in relief in the top of the seventh and struck out the first two batters she faced before hitting Pitt's Maggie Sevilla with a pitch. She then struck out pinch-hitter Keli Gaynor to end the game.

Leonard gave up one run on only two hits in six innings and recorded one strike out to improve her record to 6-0. The Cards got their two runs on five hits. 


Louisville travels to Lexington to face UK for a game on Wednesday, March 28th. 


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The 2nd annual CARDINAL COUPLE WBB Awards ballots have been counted and our illustrious staff of columnists and writers have come up with these five selections. 

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER goes to sophomore Shoni Schimmel. Her leadership and scoring won a lot of games for Louisville this year and she was almost an unanimous choice for the award. Becky Burke finished second in the voting. Schimmel won our freshman of the year balloting last year. Monique Reid took MVP last year.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER is junior Asia Taylor. Her second half of the season rise to power impressed the majority of our voters and she narrowly takes the award over sophomore Nita Slaughter. Becky Burke took the award last year. 

FAN FAVORITE for 2011-12 lands with junior Shelby Harper. As the "fan voice" for UofL women's sports, we here at CARDINAL COUPLE notice things like that and when the "spark plug" entered game this year...you could tell the crowd got excited. Second place went to Becky Burke. Harper won the award last year as well. They love ya, Shelby. So do we.

MOST VALUABLE NEWCOMER gets awarded to Bria Smith. The freshman stepped into a starting role after Tia Gibbs was injured and had a solid season for UofL at guard. Not easy coming in and being thrust into a starting role right at the start of your college career..but Smith handled with style, grace and skill. A close second for this one goes to Shawnta Dyer.

100% EFFORT AWARD ends up in Shawnta Dyer's possession. This was an unanimous vote by the panel and Dyer's efforts and hustle were well noted throughout the year...but especially after the departure of Cierra Warren. We awarded second place to the other nine players on the UofL squad. Tia Gibbs won the award last year. 


The awards carry no trophies, plaques or monetary value. They are a reflection of ours and a way to say thank you to these young women and the efforts this year. All 10 of you...and Tia and Monique, too...are winners everyday in our book! 


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Down to eight surviving teams in the NCAA Women's basketball tournament and no real surprises her with any of them. Baylor, Duke, Stanford, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Maryland, Connecticut and Kentucky. All #1 and #2 seeds. Gone is last year's champ Texas A&M and the other #3 seeds St. John's, Miami and Delaware.


The next two nights will set a Final Four for the Denver tournament. Anyone picking against the Lady Bears, Irish, Huskies and Cardinal to be the participants out there? And, will Geno Auriemma ( a younger Geno pictured above) finally calm down?  
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