Softball Gets Late Winner in Bowling Green -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Happy Wednesday, folks. Let's start with a brief note on recent transfer portal news. While some of yesterday's revelations look to have immediately called Jared's Tuesday column about WBB returners to question, we don't typically trade in incomplete information here at Cardinal Couple. We'll address any major WBB news when its official, but for now, portal announcements don't serve to promote the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics. 

Softball Takes 3-2 Victory Over WKU

In a bit of an oddity yesterday evening, WKU hosted a "Red Out" for the visiting team. WKU softball promoted the event, encouraging fans to wear red, only for WKU to take the field in traditional home whites while Louisville softball wore their red tops with red pants. Go Big Red, indeed. The Cards struck first and last in this one, breaking a tie in the sixth inning for a 3-2 win. 

Coming off of a discouraging Saturday and Sunday in Chapel Hill, Louisville headed down I-65 for their fourth in-state matchup of the season. WKU entered the game at just 15-13 overall, but they've played some tough competition already. Their losses include a pair to UK, a pair to Georgia Tech, and a pair to ranked Liberty. The Hilltoppers were coming off of a road trip to El Paso, where they went 1-2 against UTEP, so they may have been a bit more travel weary than the Cards. In the end, Louisville prevailed to improve to 4-0 against in-state competition this year. The Cards will really put that record to the test next Wednesday when they bring the Wildcats into Ulmer. 

Louisville took the plate first yesterday and got to work. After Easton Lotus had an unfortunate foul out on a 2-0 pitch, Chelsea Mack laid down her 2-0 attempt for a bunt to third. At this point, that's an automatic single. She likely would have stolen second, but she was helped out by a wild pitch to advance. In stepped Char Lorenz batting third. A note on Lorenz: other people have noticed her. This is good because she's pretty hard to ignore. Softball America issued their midseason lists and Lorenz was ranked as the top freshman in the ACC. Pretty good. It was a timely announcement, as Lorenz singled up the middle to score Mack and give Louisville the lead. She advanced to second on the throw to the plate, and she came around to score when Bri Despines doubled in the next at bat. Despines advanced to third on a throwing error, but Louisville couldn't continue the scoring rally. The Cards grabbed their gloves with a 2-0 lead. 

Alyssa Zabala got the start and took one batter too long to settle in. The WKU leadoff hitter smoked a double to open the bottom half of the first and advanced on back-to-back sacrifice flies to score. A walk and a ground out ended the inning, and Louisville maintained the lead. It looked as though they would immediately extend it, as Taylor Monroe tripled to lead off the second inning. After a line out, though, Ally Alexander hit a sharp grounder to shortstop that Monroe misread, taking off for home. The WKU shortstop threw to the plate instead of first and Monroe was tagged out. That was made doubly unfortunate when Lotus singled with two outs. The Cards couldn't bring a runner around, but they still led 2-1 heading into the home half. 

Zabala got a bit more comfortable in the second, working around a leadoff HBP to avoid any runs in the inning. Louisville went down in order in the third, and Zabala continued to show resilience. She was having a bit of trouble finding the zone, but her pitches were working to fool the WKU batters. Alyssa gave up two walks and a wild pitch in the third, but she also picked up a pair of swinging strikeouts, adding to the one she had in the second inning. 

Louisville tried to play small ball in the fourth after Jac Hasty singled to open the inning, but she was stranded at second after a sacrifice bunt was followed by two quick outs. Zabala had a fairly quick inning in the bottom half, giving up a full-count single after two fly outs and ending the threat with a pop out. Louisville went down 1-2-3 for the second time in the fifth inning, and Zabala returned to the circle for her fifth inning of work. In hindsight, Coach Holly Aprile might have considered pulling the trigger on relieving her a touch sooner. WKU opened with a double, and the Cards responded with an intentional walk to create a force out at any base. When a single loaded the bases, Aprile made the call to the bullpen and Brooke Gray entered a tough situation. 

Unfortunately for Zabala, Gray surrendered Zabala's win chance in the first at bat, giving up a four-pitch walk to score a run, tying the game and leaving the bases loaded. Fortunately for Louisville (and Zabala's ERA), Gray locked in after that. She struck out the next two batters to flip the situation from very bad (bases loaded, nobody out) to a fair bit less bad (two outs, force out at any base). A fly out ended the inning with the score tied 2-2. 

With the middle of the order due up, Louisville responded immediately. Despines laid down a first-pitch bunt up the first base line and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Hasty singled for the second time in the game, and Aprile chose to hold Despines at third. Riley Janda came in to pinch run for Hasty and immediately stole second. With two runners in scoring position, Monroe worked a strong at bat, fouling off strike three twice for an eight-pitch walk. Ava Venturelli pinch hit with the bases loaded and one out but fouled out. With the potential rally in danger, Louisville was bailed out by a wild pitch, with all three runners advancing 60 feet and Despines scoring the go-ahead run. Alexander ended up walking to reload the bases, but Lotus grounded out to end the threat. 

WKU tried to match Louisville's efforts in the bottom half, with the leadoff batter attempting a bunt up the first base line. She was thrown out, which was good because the next batter singled. Gray responded by forcing a fly ball, walked a pinch hitter in the DH spot, and forced another fly out to end the inning. Louisville's 2-4 hitters went down on just six pitches in the seventh, but Gray was up to the task. She answered the quick top half with an efficient bottom half, using just 12 pitches herself to force two ground outs and a pop out to end the game and earn herself the win. 

Louisville's offense wasn't lighting the world on fire, but that was largely due to a good outing from WKU's Rylan Smith. She threw 120 pitches in the complete game, giving up three earned runs on eight hits, two walks, and a pair of wild pitches. She struck out four. Zabala and Gray combined for 145 pitches, six hits, six walks, one WP, one HBP, and five strikeouts. The Cards left seven runners on base, including an uncharacteristic three from Lotus. Granted, those all came in one at bat. 

Louisville (20-12) returns home this weekend for a series with Duke. The Blue Devils are 21-12 so far this season with a 4-5 conference record. They went 2-1 against Clemson and Syracuse before being swept at home this past weekend by 9th-ranked Florida State. Duke was outscored 33-17 in the series, but they took the Seminoles to the wire on Saturday, losing 12-11. The Blue Devils will face East Carolina today before catching a flight to Louisville to start the series Friday. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case