BECKER FANS 10, HITS HOME RUN IN WIN
If Cardinal softball pitcher Maryssa Becker doesn't have a favorite saying, she might well consider the adage "A job done by yourself is usually a job with an excellent supervisor and dependable labor force."
Sophomore Maryssa Becker registered a career-high 10 strikeouts and hit a home run to help lead the University of Louisville softball team to a 5-0 win over host DePaul Wednesday afternoon at Cacciatore Stadium.
The Cardinals(23-12) jumped to a 2-0 lead first inning. Whitney Arion reached on a fielder's choice and scored on Hailey Smith's double. Smith crossed the plate on a hit by Kayla Soles.
The Blue Demons (13-17) threatened to push a run across in the third. Ali Lenti beat the throw on a bunt single and Morgan Maize followed with a hit to place runners on the corners. Mary Connolly walked to load the bases with one out, but Becker delivered back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the jam.
Becker took the first pitch of the fourth inning over the left centerfield fence for her team-best sixth home run of the season to give Louisville a 3-0 lead.
Kelsi Jones led off the fifth with a shot over the left field fence for her third home run of the season to make the score 4-0.The Cards added another run in the sixth when Sims doubled and took third on a single by Sydney Benz. Brittany Duncan walked to load the bases for Jones who drew a walk to plate Sims.
Becker (9-4) struck out 10 and scattered four hits in the complete game shutout. Jones went 2 for 3 with two RBIs to lead Louisville at the plate. Soles and Sims also had two hits apiece.
Louisville will return to action this weekend when the Cards play host to No. 8/10 Florida State in a three-game ACC series at Ulmer Stadium. The teams will play at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday with Sunday and Monday's games being televised on ESPNU.
It's good to see the Cards putting out a little offense firepower again. They're going to need it in the rest of April...
Speaking of April...our APRIL CARDINAL COUPLE CONTEST is predicting the total number of runs UofL Softball will score in the remaining 11 games this month. You have until Friday 7 p.m. to get us your entry. You can leave it in the comments section or e-mail your number to Cardinal Couple. It's a free contest and you could win an absolutely fabulous CARDINAL COUPLE Tee-Shirt! As a bonus, if you pick the EXACT number of runs, we'll toss in a $25 gift card.
(Thanks to Louisville SID Lori Kotre for her information we used on today's article)
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In what many consider a surprising move, Notre Dame junior guard Jewell Loyd has declared for the WNBA draft.
It's not the first time this has happened ( Remember Candace Parker and
It is a trend? Probably not...at least not to the extent it is men's college hoops. It is big news? Probably so in South Bend...where Muffet McGraw will now look for someone else to lead the Irish in 2015-16.
paulie
xxxxx
Paulie, Britteny Griner did not leave early - she played a full four years (well, maybe that fourth year wasn't quite as full as she thought it would be).
ReplyDeleteOther than Parker, the only other player of note that I can recall leaving early was Kelsey Bone of Texas A&M.
Lloyd can go early because she turns 22 this year. Guess I'd better check the birth dates of the 2014 and 2015 Cardinal recruits!
Thank you, Mike. I stand corrected and will make the change in the article. It was her fourth year that the Cards performed the Easter miracle.
DeletePaulie
Or not...for some reason, I can not edit an article through my work PC. Worldwide? Call on line 1 for a data entry correction!
DeletePaulie
Done, I also fixed up your formatting while I was at it.
DeleteThanks for the IT work, Worldwide. You may just have a future in that field.
Delete(Avoids laptop being thrown at him...)
Paulie
I certainly hope he has a future there. I don't want to support him the rest of my life.
DeleteI always thought he'd make a good fire tower watcher or operator of a cannon that shoots frozen turkeys into airplane windshields to test force resistance and strength. (Sorry, stole that one from Jeff Foxworthy)
DeletePaulie
"Gentlemen, thaw your chickens."
DeleteSo...of course I had to look for those birth dates. All of the 2014 recruits have 1996 birth dates ranging from May (Hines-Allen) to September (Brackemyre). "E" has a November, 1994 birth date - so she would be eligible to leave for WNBA after her junior season. Durr is an April birthday so she would have to play four years. Couldn't find birth dates for the other 2015 recruits.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense for Loyd to go. What does she have to look forward to her senior year except another UConn beatdown in the NCAA semis or final? She'll go first round and then be able to go to Europe and make good money playing ball over there.
ReplyDeleteNotre Dame has recruited well in the 2015 class and Muffet has a few other returnees that can assume the role of floor general.
BTW Paulie, a couple of things:
Griner played four years
I'll take 60 as total runs UofL Softball scores in 11 games. I see that Brittany Duncan reappeared in the lineup yesterday and that will most certainly help
the UofL run production.
Blue Lou
It is good to see Duncan get an at-bat. She's had a thumb injury that affects her swinging. Not sure if she is completely healed yet or not...the lineup insertion could have been just a pinch hitter ploy to get DePaul to pitch around her
DeletePaulie
Duncan pinch hit for McNary.
DeleteIt is good to see that softball can still beat up on former BIG EAST foes. A few years back, DePaul always created trouble for Louisville softball. Consequently, the Cards hired the pitcher who created that trouble for the UofL Softball staff.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't beat them, hire them.
Also, wasn't this supposed to be a doubleheader?
Inclement weather was predicted (and hit) the Chicago area last night.
DeletePaulie
More on Verdun:
ReplyDeleteLouisville's graduate assistant, Kirsten Verdun retured to her old stomping grounds having played for the Blue Demons from 2011-2014. She became the first pitcher in program history to accumulate 900-innings with more than 900 strikeouts and 100 or more wins. She holds the career record for career starts, strikeouts looking and batters faced, while finishing second in the record books in wins, strikeouts, innings pitched, appearances, and complete games. She ranked second in DePaul's record books with 37 home runs and holds the record for the most career walks with 156.
Paulie
I wasn't too surprised when Zahuli B. went pro. She was still two years away from her degree at Minnesota and since she is from Sweden she was always going to make her big money in overseas ball. She'll get drafted in the top four in the WNBA in mid-April but with the CBA limited rookie contracts and team salary caps she probably wasn't going to make much more than the $49.6K contract amount for draft picks 1 to 4 in the W during her first year. I predict she'll be another Liz Cambage type kid that just isn't that interested in playing in the W long term vs the bigger bucks overseas leagues. We'll see I guess. Tough hit for Minnesota though. She coulda made them a contenda.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion Loyd's decision to go pro is mistake unless she has a huge overseas contract sitting out there waiting to be signed. She only has one more year to get her ND BS/BA. I don't know what she's majoring in but the annual cost of attending ND is over $62K according to ND's web site. Comparing that $62K expense and the lifetime value of a degree from Notre Dame to the first year WNBA salary of $49.6K makes the "stay in school and get your degree" argument pretty compelling. It's particularly persuasive when you consider that few early leavers ever come back and get their degrees. If Loyd had stayed and graduated it would have positioned her to get a MA or MBA during her playing career and being ready to transition to the real world after her ankles, knees, hips or back can't take the grind anymore. I guess I always hope that young, talented kids like Loyd are getting informed input from someone with some perspective on important issues. Loyd is no Diggins from a promotional value standpoint. I'd be amazed if she has any significant endorsement deals waiting in the wings but you never know.
In fairness to Loyd that type of analysis isn't easy to see when you are 21. It's easier to see when you've seen others make those types of short term decisions that end up hurting them long term.
I agree with Lou that from a pure basketball perspective Jefferson schooled Loyd enough in the final that she probably wasn't looking forward to a return engagement. Make no mistake though...this will hurt ND next year. From a selfish standpoint I'm fine with it as it improves our odds of taking the ACC.
Next season, the Fighting Irish will welcome the nation's No. 3-recruiting class, a three-player group that features three McDonald's High School All-America guards -- McDonald's High School All-America Game MVP and 2015 Gatorade New Jersey Player of the Year Marina Mabrey (Belmar, N.J./Manasquan), three-time Wisconsin Player of the Year Arike Ogunbowale (Milwaukee, Wis./Divine Savior Holy Angels) and 2015 Indiana Miss Basketball Ali Patberg (Columbus, Ind./Columbus North).
DeleteBully for the Irish. We've got the nation's No. 1 recruiting class coming in and we aren't having a senior team leader All American walk out on our program for little reason other than the embarrassment of getting shut down in the NCAA championship game in front of a national TV audience by a kid that gave away three inches and all kinds of national accolades to her. If you folks wonder why UConn schools you so regularly when you have recruited at an equal level vs them for years it is stunts like what Loyd just pulled that guarantee that you've got no shot at UConn. That's OK tho, we'll pick up that ball and run with it.
DeleteIt is interesting to know that there are some ND fans watching Paulie & Sonja's blog tho. I had the unfortunate experience of working with and opposite several ND graduates during my professional wars and I found them to be stunningly arrogant and condescending in their delivery and demeanor, while at the same time being painfully unaware of their subject knowledge gaps, particularly when they were on the losing end of a business exchange.
I can't wait for next year. Sell your blarney somewhere else.
UND may need three guards to replace Loyd.
DeleteLOLOL. This could be a haunting for years past when Sonja would go over to the RIVALS Notre Dame WBB site/message board and antagonize the Irish faithful. She gained quite the rep over there.
DeleteWe had Angel and Candyce at the time. Sonja had some swag she could throw at them.
Paulie
I didn't know Sonja was such a player. Way to Bring It Sonja!
DeleteI normally don't poor mouth other schools but my better half and I spent a good number of years working in Los Angeles and for some reason we kept running into Notre Dame and Southern Cal graduates in our work and they were generally really tough to work with. They were all 100% confident that they were 100% right 100% of the time. In particular my GF ran into tons of ND grads in the advertising biz. Ad Biz folks are total BS artists to begin with and when you pile an Irish degree on top of it you've got an impossible combo.
In any case I'm feeling even better about our roundball opportunities next year. With Loyd ND was going to be near impossible to top. Without her I think we've got a legit shot at taking the conference if things come together in a dynamic way. Good Stuff!
LOL. It was when we were still writing for Charlie Springer over at UofL Card game and we were doing a lot of sampling and reading of other sites to try and get an idea for what eventually became Cardinal Couple.
DeleteOne thing we decided on early in the process. No message boards.
Paulie
Ah. Good idea on the message boards. Whenever I need a laugh I take a look at the LadyVol message boards just to see what kind of torture they are recommending for Warllick after they lose a game.
DeletePaulie, when is the last time we beat Notre Dame? Notre Dame will kick our rear end again next year and that sucks considering how arrogant their graduates seem to be. I'm in the ad business and haven't run across any golden domers.
ReplyDeleteYou have to go back to 2-11-09 for a UofL WBB win over Notre Dame. The Cards won that one in South Bend 71-66. Louisville has lost seven in a row to Muffet and crew since. Walz is 1-9 against UND.
DeleteI was in the ad business for awhile as well and rarely asked my clients who their favorite team was. My late dentist, however, was an avid ND fan and had an autographed picture of Digger Phelps in his examination room. I felt a lot better in that chair...knowing Digger was overseeing my dental care.
Paulie
I'm jealous of both you guys. The ND folks we ran into wouldn't (or couldn't) shut up about it. I was in Sales Ops and had to sit through presentations from numerous Ad Agencies pitching Automobile Launch Campaigns. Invariably someone on the presentation team would drop the ND reference. In fairness one of our VPs was a ND grad so they probably thought the ND thing would get them somewhere. What it got from me was them being crossed off the list of agencies to be considered.
DeleteThe GF did freelance work at a big agency and dealt with a couple of them. Even involved in a lawsuit with a newly minted NDer whose daddy was a big time attorney and thought his princess was being mistreated. Twilight Zone Stuff.
Maybe it was the Los Angeles thing. Seems like normal people who move to LA frequently believe they've somehow automatically become cool and have to tell everyone why they are all that.
In fairness to ND they weren't as bad as the Southern Cal grads who almost couldn't believe how attractive and smart they were. Unfortunately there were lots more USC grads too. They pretty much all thought they were going to be the next Cecil B Demille.
It was craziness. The good old days.
Paulie - I can see how a dental drill and ND kinda go together.
Or...as we used to say..."How can you tell someone has graduated from Notre Dame?"
Delete" They count your change back to you at the drive-thru window."
LOL
Paulie