Cards Win Two in Ft. Myers -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Softball Beats Buffalo and FGCU

Louisville has finally broken their streak of losing games to hosting teams after beating FGCU 3-2 in the later game yesterday. The Cards had three losses entering the weekend, with all three coming against the team playing host to these early season multi-team events. Louisville now comes into the second day of the Gulf Coast Classic with a 9-3 record overall. 

The Cards got to face Buffalo in the opener yesterday, and junior transfer Madi Reeves got the start. Reeves was good early, putting the Bulls down 1-2-3 in the first inning and working out of a jam in the second. An error put a runner on second to open the inning and a single saw runners on the corners with no outs. Reeves got a three-pitch strikeout and then the Louisville defense played a sacrifice bunt attempt extremely well to get the out at home. A ground out ended the inning. After stranding a runner in the first, Louisville managed to scratch a run across in the second and led 1-0. 

The Cards extended their lead to 2-0 in the top of the third by taking advantage of their speed at the top of the order. Back-to-back singles by Easton Lotus and Chelsea Mack put the pressure on to open the inning and, although the Buffalo pitcher worked around the threat for the most part, Lotus was able to get home. Then the wheels fell off for Louisville. Five straight singles opened the bottom of the third for Buffalo, with the fourth scouring two runs and the fifth reloading the bases with nobody out. Anna Wise came in to replace Reeves, and Louisville's defense rewarded her with back-to-back errors scoring three more runs. Another single scored Buffalo's sixth run of the inning, but a greedy attempt to pick up another run was thrown out at home. Wise finally managed to prevent the Bulls from hitting the ball with a strikeout for the second out and a groundout ended the inning. The Cards trailed 6-2. 

Fortunately for Louisville, Buffalo isn't actually very good this season, at least according to their record. The Bulls entered the game with a 3-8 record, and Louisville's offense finally took advantage. The Cards scored three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to retake the lead. They took two more in the sixth to push their advantage to four runs, and the defense and pitching managed to shape up to prevent Buffalo from scoring any more runs. In fact, the Bulls only picked up two more hits on Anna Wise, and Alyssa Zabala replaced her in the sixth and allowed just two walks over two innings while striking out three. 

Offensively, Louisville was led by Taylor Monroe, who went 3-3 and had four RBI. That was good, since Monroe was the offender on both of Louisville's third-inning errors. Bri Despines added two RBI, and Chelsea Mack and Madison Pickens joined Monroe with three hits apiece. Riley Janda scored three runs despite going 1-4 at the plate, and she had one of Louisville's four steals (Mack had the other three). Easton Lotus went 2-4 at the top of the order and also drew a walk, allowing her to score two runs. 

In the second game, offense took a back seat to pitching. Already warm from two innings in the first game, Alyssa Zabala took the circle in the second and nearly pitched a complete game. She didn't have the strikeout ball working as well in the second game, picking up just two, but FGCU wasn't getting much from putting the ball in play. Zabala went 6.2 innings and gave up just three hits and one walk. Unfortunately, one of those hits was a home run, and it came after one of the others in the fifth inning. That two-run homer tied the game, but Coach Holly Aprile left Zabala in and Alyssa rewarded her with strong pitching after. 

After picking up RBI singles in the third and fourth innings, it was small ball again for Louisville in the seventh that let them regain the lead. Jordan Williams opened the inning with a single and Lotus followed with one as well. Mack laid down a bunt to move both runners into scoring position, and Camryn Lookadoo sent a fly ball into center to bring Williams home on a sacrifice. Zabala got a ground out and a line out to open the bottom half, but she walked the potential last out of the game on a full-count. That brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of a batter who had already taken Zabala yard in the game. Aprile made the move to replace Zabala with Wise and Anna induced a ground ball back to the circle to end the game. 

Louisville moved to 9-3 with their two wins yesterday, and they'll play two more today. The Cards will face Wisconsin at 12:15 and UConn at the conclusion of that game (scheduled for 2:30). We'll see if Brooke Gray takes the circle today after having yesterday off. 

Until next time, Go Cards!