Thursday Cardinal Couple - Odds and Ends

In the frenzy of covering the ACC WBB tournament that Paulie went to, as well as the incredible success that the Lacrosse team has had over the past week or two, I wanted to go back and pick up a few other items, give Softball some love, and give a bit of update for Swimming and Diving.

First, Did You Notice the Lacrosse Image?

Maybe you didn't notice one of the images that Paulie used in his article yesterday.  I wanted to highlight it, however, because he didn't mention the full news in the body of the article.  He referenced that Kay Morissette won the ACC Offensive Player of the Week, but he didn't get in the text that Sophomore Brittany Read also won Defensive Player of the Week in the ACC honors.

I just wanted to make sure we gave all the proper dues to the Loucrossers.  (I can see, I'm going to have to add that to my spell-check.)

Softball Opens ACC Play

Paulie mentioned that I got to go watch a lot of Softball against Georgia Tech this past weekend, but the reality is, I only saw about half of it, and I was only able to see that much because of some scheduling adjustments in response to weather.

After the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on Saturday, I did adjust my plans and went to the Lacrosse stadium to catch the big game against Notre Dame.  After the stunning double-overtime finish, I did hightail it down to Ulmer and managed to catch the last half of the 2nd Softball game of the day, and then made it back out on Sunday to catch the rubber match game.  The times for Softball all got pushed back from a noon start to 1:30 because of rain.

The first game got off to a quick start, with Lillie Goetz getting hit by a pitch and Maryssa Becker sending one to the berm in right to score two.  Later in the inning, a couple of singles got Brittany Sims to 2nd base, and a Nicole Pufahl single up the middle brought Sims home.  The 2nd inning showed a bit of small ball, with a variety of singles and sacrifices...a few of which reached the outfield, but no big boomers...until late in the inning when Nicole Pufahl cleared the bases with one out to left center to finish the 6 run inning.  

After 3 innings, the score was UofL 9, Georgia Tech 3 and a run rule win started to be visible on the horizon.  Nothing much happened from the bottom of the 3rd through the top of the 5th.  The 5th inning is when the run rule takes effect, though, so all UofL had to do was score two and it was a wrap on the game.  Sidney Melton singled up the center, then stole second.  Lillie Goetz then drew a walk to make the stolen base a little less meaningful.  A wild pitch advanced the pair to 2nd and 3rd, which it was then made a bit less meaningful when Maryssa came to the plate, ripped one to center field, scoring 3 and ending the game.

The 2nd game wasn't so great.  It started out reasonably well, with a pair of Cardinals getting on with walks.  Megan Hensley got an RBI with a single up the middle that brought Lillie Goetz home and moved Maryssa Becker to 2nd.  
Brittany Sims hit into a fielder's choice that got Becker to 3rd who was then able to tag and get home on a Jenna Jordan fly out to center.  Alas, that would be the only scoring for the Cards in the game.  I arrived at Ulmer in the middle of the 5th with the score still UofL 2, GT 0.  The wheels fell off for the Cards in the end of this one.  With GT tying up the game in the 6th with 2, and then posting 3 more on the scoreboard in the top of the 7th and defending in the Cards half of the inning to split the day.

Fortunately, a new day dawned and the teams were back at it on Sunday.  This one started out as a bit of a pitcher's duel with nothing getting on the board at all until the bottom of the 3rd.  Lillie Goetz hit into a fielder's choice, advanced to 2nd when Maryssa Becker got hit by a pitch, and finished the circuit on a Megan Hensley single to left field.  After threatening again in the 4th with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs, and getting nothing, the Cards would find some more offense in the 5th.  Lillie Goetz did her job and got on base with a single, advanced a couple of times on sacrifices, and would make it home on a Nicole Pufahl double to left field.  A Brittany Sims single would score Pufahl.  After 5 and the score was 3-0 with UofL holding the lead. 

A disastrous 6th inning, though saw GT put 4 on the scoreboard.  There was only 1 error credited to the Cards in the inning, but it wasn't sharp play as GT took the lead.  In Louisville's half of the 6th, Hailey Smith started it out with a single, and then Sidney Melton reached on a fielder's choice that advanced Smith the 2nd.  Mo Meyer came in to pinch-run for Hailey Smith, putting some serious speed on the bases with Meyer and Melton.  The bases got loaded up when Lillie Goetz drew a walk.  Maryssa Becker hit a single up the middle and the base-running substitution strategy paid off with Meyer and Melton both getting home to put the Cards back up on top.  3 straight outs at that point finished the 6th, GT would score nothing in the 7th resulting in the 5-4 final score.

Look for post-series audio with Coach Sandy Pearsall on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour this Saturday.

Meanwhile, Softball action continues hot and heavy at Ulmer over the next several days with the Cards in action starting today at 4pm against Illinois State.  Another two games tomorrow with Jacksonville State at 2:30 and Dayton at 4:30, a single game Saturday against EKU at noon, and then a pair on Sunday with an extremely good #2 Michigan team at 10 a.m., and a rematch against Dayton at 2:30.

This is all part of the Louisville Softball Classic, for which there are 14 games scheduled over the course of the next 5 days, so if you have an interest in Softball, you should be able to get your fill.

Swimming

Swimming and Diving is reaching the end of their competitions for the year, but UofL will be well represented in Atlanta, GA at the NCAA championships with 8 individuals competing and another 3 athletes going to participate in relay events.

Louisville Swimming is looking to not just represent the school well at the NCAA level, but perhaps to get some more representation lined up for the Olympics in Rio.  Kelsi Worrell has already solidly qualified for the Olympic trials, but there are a couple of other Cardinals that are putting up numbers that are getting into the range of being internationally competitive.

I believe UofL Men's swimming will have at least 4 swimmers and former swimmers appearing in Rio de Janiero for various countries.

JMcA
xxxxx