Honors continue for Louisville Softball -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 TRIO OF SOFTBALL CARDS HONORED

Bri Despines was named a 3rd String All-American by the NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association), Camryn Lookadoo earned Rawlings/NFPA Gold Glove honors and Chelsea Mack received the New Balance/NFPA Golden Shoe award. 

Hey, all we need is a classy pair of slacks and colorful top and someone is ready for a night out on the town, right?

Despines checks in as the 11th All-American in Louisville Softball history. She joins Taylor Roby, Camryn Greenwood, Katie Keller, Alicia Wolny, Tori Collins, Taner Fowler, Melissa Roth (twice), Kristen Wadwell and Lacy Wood on the list. She batted .402 at the plate, with 66 hits and 70 RBI's. Opponents had to think twice about stealing a base on her, too...she threw out 12 runner trying. 

Lookadoo batted .382 this season with 60 hits and 58 RBI's. A junior out of Georgetown, KY (Great Crossings) and formerly a UK Wildcat was par excellence on the dirt with a .992 field average and only three errors all season. 

Mack has 87 hits and ended up second in the nation with 45 stolen bases. She batted .449 at the plate and joined the Cards when she also transferred from UK after her freshman season.  Out of Brecksville (OH) High School,  She was successful in 81 of her 83 base stealing attempts in 2022. 

Despines and Mack are done with their collegiate playing days, while Lookadoo has one more season. 

(Photos from UofL)

palie

paulie

SOFTBALL SLUGS PAST NOTRE DAME 13-5 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 LOOKADOO'S BIG DAY HELPS CARDS DOWN IRISH

A huge day at the plate for Cards junior Camryn Lookadoo against UND.

Three for four at the plate with two home runs, a double and seven RBI's for the Georgetown, KY native. Yes, she alone drove in more runs than the Notre Dame squad and the first baseman improved her season batting average to .405 for the season. 

The Cards were "right for the fight" today (sorry, UK) with seven runs in the first two innings. Alyssa Zabala surely loved that offense barrage to make thing less stressful for her in the circle.  Now 10-4 on the season, Zabala's stats for the game were allowing two runs on six hits in three innings of pitching.

UofL jumped out to a 7-0 lead after two innings and the only Notre Dame softball student-athlete has was finding any success Sunday was Lily Hagan..who had two home runs and four RBI's. 

The Cards...now 34-9 overall and 10-5 in conference...returns back to Ulmer Stadium to host IU in a non-conference tilt Wednesday April 15th at 8 p.m. 

paulie

Softball Goes 3-1 on Weekend; Faces Evansville Tonight -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Score 34 in Shortened Cardinal Classic

Louisville softball was busy over the weekend, but we had our hands full with WBB in the ACC Tournament. The Cards hosted the Cardinal Classic in their final home non-conference weekend of the season. Louisville will participate in one more non-conference weekend event in a couple of weeks when they play in The Ohio State Tournament. Holly Aprile's squad was scheduled to play five games over the weekend, but a rainout on Friday meant that the game against LIU got the axe.

The Cards still opened the event on Friday, playing the first of a pair of games against Ball State. In Cardinals vs Cardinals action, Louisville ultimately fell 5-7 in the opener, creating an inauspicious start to their home event. Ball State tagged Alyssa Zabala for four runs in the top of the first before she was pulled after just two-thirds of an inning. Louisville was unable to tie the game, so Zabala officially took the loss, marking her first of the season. The Cards made a late rally in the sixth, scoring three runs in the bottom half to make it close, but their charge stopped there. 

The two teams played a rematch to open Saturday morning's events with a 9am start. Ball State scored first again, but this time Jayden Gohs held them to just one run in the opening frame, and Louisville scored a pair in the bottom half to gain the lead. Ball State wouldn't score again and Louisville went on to score in each of the five innings played. Gohs pitched all five and Louisville won in an 8-1 run rule. 

After opening the day at 9am Saturday, Louisville also closed it with a first pitch at 7pm. This time, they were taking on Illinois, and the Cards scored eight runs for the second time that day. Zabala got the start against the Illini and struggled in the first again. She gave up three runs before Louisville was able to stop the bleeding. This time, though, Zabala recovered, and twirled four scoreless before Illinois scored again. The Cards struggled to score for the first three innings, but they exploded for six in the fourth and tagged on two more in the fifth. Zabala allowed a run in the sixth to make it 8-4 in favor of Louisville, and Aprile gave her an opportunity to close the game out in the seventh. After Zabala gave up a single to open the inning, she got the hook and Anna Wise came in to clean up. A strikeout preceded a steal and a liner to third made gave Louisville two outs and a runner on second. A homer to deep left made it 8-6 and things got a bit nervier. Wise stayed cool and induced a ground ball to end the game. 

Louisville closed the weekend with another game against Illinois. This time, Madi Reeves got the start. Brooke Gray was conspicuously absent from the circle over the weekend, but she's been struggling of late. We may see her tonight against Evansville. Reeves pitched a solid first two innings but gave up three runs in the third. After a scoreless first two innings, matching Illinois, Louisville responded to their third inning outburst with one of their own. The Cards scored four in the third, marking their first of three innings with four runs. Louisville put up four more in the fourth and one in the fifth to set up a run-rule with a 9-3 lead. Illinois scored a pair in the sixth to stay alive, but the Cards added their final four runs in the bottom half to end the game. Gohs was the winner after coming on in relief in the fourth. 

Offensively, 34 runs over four games is quite good. Defensively, giving up 19 in four games is less good. At the end of the day, though, they went 3-1, so it's hard to complain too much. Taylor Monroe got off to a good start going 3-3 with three RBI in the first game against Ball State but didn't play for the rest of the weekend. Addy O'Dell replaced Monroe at short and had a strong three games. Her best came in the Sunday game against Illinois, where she went 2-3, scored three runs, and had an RBI on her first collegiate home run. In that game, she had one of Louisville's six doubles. The big bats came against Ball State Saturday morning, when Louisville hit three home runs (Camryn Lookadoo, Madison Pickens, and Katie Thatcher). Lookadoo led the team with eight RBI on the weekend and tied with Easton Lotus and Chelsea Mack for the team lead in hits (7). 

The Cards will face Evansville this evening with first pitch scheduled for 6pm. Evansville is off to a tough start this season, as they're just 7-12. The two teams don't have a common opponent, as the Purple Aces' scheduled game against Ball State on 2/15 was canceled. The Aces are coming off their conference opening weekend, where they lost an extremely close series against Illinois State at home. The series was determined by just one total run with final scores of 2-3, 5-6 (9 innings), and 8-7. Louisville's 3-1 weekend brought their season record to 18-5. If they aren't receiving votes in this week's poll, a win tonight and a series win on the road against current #25 Clemson could get them there. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Late Rally Boosts SB Cards -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Beats #13 Stanford 8-3

The Louisville softball team opened their long homestand and ACC season with a resounding win last night. The Cards brought in the Cardinal from Stanford and treated the #13/16 team to an 8-3 defeat in just Louisville's second game at Ulmer this season. Louisville is facing Stanford in their first ACC series of the year, but it's a bit out of sequence, as the Cards will host a pair of midweek games sandwiching the Cardinal Classic before their next ACC series comes on the road starting on March 13th. 

Alyssa Zabala took the start for Louisville yesterday evening and got off to a bit of an unfortunate start. Zabala put herself squarely in the crosshairs for an earned run by hitting the first batter (who had already fouled off three 2-strike pitches) and then allowing a steal. A productive groundout put the runner on third and a single made the score 1-0. Another single put two on before a flyout gave the Cards two outs. Zabala intentionally walked the bases loaded to get a force out at any base, which turned out to be unnecessary since the next batter grounded out to first. Louisville escaped with just a 1-0 deficit, but they responded with a 1-2-3 bottom half. 

Zabala still didn't have the strikeout pitch working in the second inning, but she was much more efficient in her return to the circle. Despite a long full-count at-bat (which went 10 pitches) that ultimately resulted in a flyout, Zabala was able to go 1-2-3 in the second and used just 17 pitches. The Cards tried to get the small ball going in the second inning after Bri Despines took an HBP on the first pitch of the at-bat. Camryn Lookadoo bunted her to second, but a pair of groundouts ended the inning. Zabala looked like she might be in a groove in the third, but she still wasn't able to miss bats. Three pitches saw two outs, but she opened the third batter in the inning with three straight balls. Needing to bring the ball back into the strike zone came back to haunt her, as the 3-1 pitch was smoked to straightaway center to put Stanford up 2-0. A flyout ended the inning. 

Louisville once again got their leadoff hitter on when Ava Venturelli walked, and the speedster freshman Addy O'Dell replaced her on the base paths. O'Dell advanced to second with one out when Easton Lotus reached on a fielding error. Both moved up on a Chelsea Mack ground out, but a strikeout kept the score at 2-0. The top of the fourth saw Zabala yield to Anna Wise in the circle, and Wise got to work quickly, with a strikeout and a groundout. An error and a wild pitch put another runner in scoring position, but Wise picked up another K to end the threat and keep Louisville in striking distance. For the third straight inning, Louisville got their leadoff batter on base, this time on a single by Despines, but for the third straight inning they stranded runners in scoring position. The threats continued to grow, though, as Louisville had the bases loaded with one out before a strikeout and a groundout squashed the chance. 

Wise continued to be effective in the fifth, pitching around a one-out walk. A single put runners on first and second with two outs, but Wise cleaned it up with another groundout. Then came the Cards. Again, they put the leadoff runner on base, and this time it was with the top of the lineup at the plate. Lotus singled and Mack sacrifice bunted her to second. It looked like the threat might come to nothing again when Madison Pickens struck out, but Despines homered to right to tie the game at two. Louisville wasn't quite done, though as Lookadoo walked to follow. A four-pitch walk to Taylor Monroe gave Louisville two-on with two-out and Stanford went to the bullpen. The new pitcher advanced the runners with a wild pitch, but it didn't matter anyway as Riley Janda worked a full-count walk. Venturelli singled straight back to the pitcher on her first pitch and scored a pair of runs before a flyout ended the inning. Louisville flipped a two-run deficit to two-run lead at 4-2. 

Stanford got a runner on in the top of the sixth via walk, but it was no issue for Wise, who followed it with two groundouts to end the inning. The big inning in the fifth meant Louisville opened the sixth with Lotus again, and she made it five straight innings with the leadoff runner on base. This time she walked, though it looked like she'd be stranded early by a strikeout and fly out. Despines had the bat working, though, as she singled to keep the inning alive. Lookadoo brought the big bat this time, knocking a three-run homer to left. Again, a walk followed the home run and a single followed the walk. Venturelli picked up another RBI by singling, but Louisville couldn't take advantage of a wild pitch putting runners on second and third. Nevertheless, the Cards led 8-2 with Stanford down to their final three outs. 

The nice thing about a six-run lead is that you've got a lot of cushion. Louisville didn't need it, but when the Cardinal opened the top of the seventh with a home run, the Cards still had a five-run lead and still had little stress. Even a grand slam keeps you ahead. Wise shook off the home run with a first pitch groundout straight back to the circle, though she wasn't able to duplicate that on an infield single on the next at-bat. Louisville ended the threat and the game with a nice defensive play, turning a 5-4-3 double-play, which is quite difficult to do in softball, and the celebration began. 

While small-ball might be Louisville's primary form of attack this season, it was nice to see that they have some pop as well. A pair of home runs, both scoring multiple runs, would have actually been enough to still win this game. Louisville got down early, but they didn't let the ranking and the situation overwhelm them. The Cards stayed focused and kept themselves threatening, and eventually it paid off. Louisville will try to take the series in game two today at 1PM. While the finale tomorrow will be on ACC Network, today's game will be streaming only on ACCNX. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Softball 1-1 After Day One -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Opens Season With Split

The Cards took to the sunny climes of Florida for the beginning of the softball season, as they do annually, and began their 2026 campaign with a victory. The joy of a 7-4 win over Stony Brook was a bit short lived, though, as they fell at the hands of the hosting FIU Panthers 5-7 in the later game. Louisville will get a chance for payback against FIU tomorrow morning, but they have a pair of games today first. The Cards take on Corpus Christi at 11:30 this morning and will face Lehigh this evening at 4:30. 

In the first game, Louisville fell behind in the second inning 1-0, but turned their fortunes around with a four-run third. They tacked on a single run in the fifth and their final two in the sixth before needing to hold on to their lead against a three-run seventh inning for Stony Brook. Brooke Gray got the start in game one and pitched four innings of one-run ball. She gave up three hits and hit one batter but tallied three strikeouts and no walks. Two of the three hits came in the second inning to set up the sacrifice fly that scored her only earned run, but it was a decent start for the junior. 

Offensively in game one, Louisville was led by Madison Pickens, who has moved into the third spot in the lineup, as she had two triples. One resulted in an RBI and a little-league home run as she scored on a throwing error by the left fielder, and the other saw her batted in for the Cards' fifth run of the game. Taylor Monroe also had a pair of hits, and Riley Janda had Louisville's only home run. Small ball and speed will likely reign again for Louisville, as the Cards had three stolen bases (Easton Lotus, Chelsea Mack, Bri Despines). 

In game two, the Cards jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first, but FIU responded immediately to take the lead by the end of the inning. The Cards got back-to-back solo homers from Pickens and Despines in the inning, but Alyssa Zabala had a nightmare start in her season opener. Zabala gave up four straight hits and an error put a fifth straight batter on base before Zabala was replaced by Anna Wise. Alyssa will surely be back to her normal form sooner rather than later, but she's sitting on the dreaded "infinity" ERA at the moment. 

Anna Wise settled in and got out of the inning with some defensive help, but Louisville trailed 3-2. The sophomore transfer from Ohio University pitched well as the quasi starter after that, going five innings before she ran into trouble. In the meantime, Louisville scored in the fifth on a Camryn Lookadoo double to tie the game. Things unraveled a bit for Wise in the sixth inning, but it was the defense that ultimately let this one slip away. Wise opened the inning with a popup, but a pair of singles followed. A fly out left runners on first and second with two outs. 

Easy enough, you might think, but not quite. A ground ball back to the pitcher was unable to be converted to the final out, and the bases were loaded. It was a tough call for Holly Aprile to put a freshman in a tie game with the bases loaded, but she trusted her gut. It didn't quite work out. Jayden Gohs took over in the circle and walked in the go-ahead run. Unfortunately, the defense made a bad situation worse when Taylor Monroe sailed a throw from short that could have ended the inning and instead scored a pair of unearned runs. A double added one more unearned run and the Cards trailed 7-3 with one more trip to the plate. 

To their credit, the Cards put up a valiant effort in the seventh. Katie Thatcher walked to open the inning, and Lookadoo singled to try to start a rally. FIU made a pitching change, which looked to be the right call as Easton Lotus struck out, but Chelsea Mack laid down a bunt that scored two runs on an errant throw. Mack advanced all the way to third and with a runner in scoring position, one out, and the heart of the order due up, Louisville wasn't quite out of it yet. Their hopes were dashed in fairly short order, though, as Pickens and Despines both lined out to end the game. 

There's a long season ahead, and Louisville gets back into it today. There's plenty of good and bad to take from the opening day of games, so we'll just see what the Cards do with the rest of their weekend. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Softball Falls; Volleyball Beats UK -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Can't Repeat Upset at UVA

After the big win on Thursday evening, Louisville looked to sneak the series from Virginia last night, but they'll have to wait until today if they want to finish the job. The Cavaliers scored first and poured it on late to break away and ultimately take an 8-2 victory. Louisville will get another chance at noon today. 

Louisville ran a bit of a different lineup yesterday, with Easton Lotus leading off but Char Lorenz following her instead of Chelsea Mack. Lotus bunted out before Lorenz had an infield single. Madison Pickens was next, and the box score gives her a single with Lorenz out at second, so I'm not quite sure what happened there. Sounds like a fielder's choice to me, but so it goes. Pickens stole second but Bri Despines ended the inning with another infield ground ball. Hey... at least the Cards were putting the bat on the ball. 

Brooke Gray got the start and UVA jumped on her quickly. A double down the left field line opened the inning and a sac bunt turned into a single to put runners on the corners with nobody out. A steal put two in scoring position and a ground ball back to Gray allowed both runners to advance, scoring a run. The trail runner taking the base was what haunted, as the next ball was a sacrifice fly to center. A ground out ended the inning but the Cavs led 2-0. 

Louisville got those runs back in the third. Chelsea Mack, batting ninth, singled up the middle and advanced to second on a Lotus sacrifice bunt. Lorenz got her second infield single and Mack moved up to third. Lorenz then ran herself off the base paths with a caught stealing, which is an interesting choice in the situation. Either way, Pickens singled to score Mack and Despines singled to keep the two-out rally alive. Camryn Lookadoo then hit a sharp grounder to short, but the shortstop missed the throw to second, allowing Despines and Lookadoo to reach safely and allowing Pickens to score, unearned. The defense recovered, with the shortstop herself refielding the ball and throwing Despines out at third. Inning over, but the score was tied again. 

The tie remained to the bottom of the fourth when UVA again grabbed a leadoff double. Instead of a sac bunt turning into a single this time, it turned into an error when the ball wasn't caught cleanly at first. The unearned run was returned, and UVA regained the lead. A fielder's choice erased the lead runner (and the second potential unearned run), but a two-run homer made it 5-2. Gray recovered for a line out to make it two outs, but a single and a walk ended her day. Zabala came on in relief needing to just get one out, but a single to center was booted and two more unearned runs came in to score. A flyout ended the inning, but the lead had grown to 7-2. 

The Cards stranded six runners on base over the final three innings and were unable to cut into the lead. UVA added an insurance run they didn't need to set the final score at 8-2 in the bottom of the sixth. With two on and nobody out in the seventh, Louisville's chances ended on a strikeout, an infield fly, and a flyball to straightaway center. Ballgame. 

With Zabala having only thrown 1.1 innings yesterday and Sam Booe having come in to throw one of her own, it's anyone's guess who will take the start in the rubber match this afternoon. Louisville will need another strong offensive showing if they want to get a series upset. The game will air on ACC Network Extra. 

Meske Wins First Battle of the Bluegrass

Does a spring exhibition count as a true rivalry game? You bet it does. At least when we win. If we lose it doesn't count. Makes sense, right? Either way, the Cards took on the Cats in L&N Federal Credit Union Arena last night in their fourth and final spring match in the first season of the Dan Meske Era. Over 1,000 fans were on hand to watch the Cards take the 3-1 victory. We're still selling out the L&N FCU Arena in spring ball. I think the volleyball support is doing just fine. 

The Cards won 25-17, 20-25, 25-16, and 25-14 and were led by Payton Petersen and Reese Robins who each had eight kills. Defensively, the Cards were on fire. Kamden Schrand, officially wearing the libero jersey full time, finished with 22 digs, and Nayelis Cabello was close behind with 18. Cabello also contributed three blocks and six kills to go with her 24 assists. Petersen added four blocks and Robins had two. Those four will certainly be names we'll get used to hearing throughout the season. 

Other players that earned shoutouts from the official gocards writeup were Cara Cresse, Chloe Chicoine, Hannah Sherman, Kalyssa Blackshear, Ava Utterback, Hannah Kenny, and Alanna Bankston. There will be a lot of new names to get acquainted with after a fair amount of turnover from last season, but things appear to be just fine after Louisville went 4-0 during their spring season. Last night, the Cards also honored Elle Glock with a special senior day ceremony of her own after Glock decided to forego her final season of eligibility to graduate and depart UofL in May. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have three on hand today, as house projects keep Daryl away. Given the updates from last time she was on the show, we'll definitely let that slide. Join us as we talk softball, lacrosse, volleyball, and a little WBB. Check out the show after it posts around 1PM, and be sure to subscribe so that it comes to your feed automatically. 

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case 

Softball Active Early in Portal -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Aprile Adds Two Transfers

Louisville softball had an underwhelming year this past season, and they'll lose a couple of key names from that roster. As a result, restocking the cupboard will be task one for Coach Holly Aprile as she looks to improve on last season's results. She got off to a quick start on that front, signing two transfers already. Louisville announced the additions of Bri Despines and Camryn Lookadoo to next year's roster.

Despines is a rising junior originally from Creve Coeur, Illinois. She arrives at Louisville after two seasons at Kent State. Last year, Despines was named All-MAC second team, which came after being named to the MAC All-Freshman team in 2023. Despines will look to step into the role left by the previous transfer catcher who graduated, Kylie Goff. Despines started both seasons at Kent State, so this is a move all about stepping up in competition. Last season she hit .338 with a .408 on-base percentage. As part of her 53 hits, she had 11 doubles, two triples, and three home runs. She walked 18 times. Behind the plate, Despines fielded a .992 fielding percentage, posting just two errors against 25 assists. She had just one passed ball and caught opposing base stealers on 11/53 attempts. 

Next comes another transfer in the growing Kentucky -> Louisville pipeline. This one is a bit more interesting. After non-native Kentuckians Izzy Harrison and Chelsea Mack came over last season, Louisville brings in a home-grown player in Camryn Lookadoo. Lookadoo is a rising sophomore from Georgetown, KY. She won district titles with Great Crossing in 2021 and 2022 and a regional crown in 2023. As a senior, she led off and hit .471 with only two strikeouts on the season. In 2018, she lettered for Scott County High School's 2018 championship team while only a seventh grader. As a freshman at UK, the infielder saw limited playing time, getting into only seven games. She had two putouts and three assists on five defensive chances, but she failed to record a hit in six at-bats, striking out twice. When used as a pinch runner, she scored two runs. Like Mack and Harrison, Lookadoo will be seeking an expanded role at UofL where she will hopefully return to the form she had in her high school days. 

Despines and Lookadoo will hardly be the last transfers we'll see this season (likely out as well as in), so the roster has a lot of shaping up still to do. We'll see how the gaps get filled as the summer rolls on. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(Lookng for  Daryl) 

We're without Daryl today, as she tries to beat the heat on the golf course in the yard. We'll still have four on board for this week's show as the news grows thinner but the fall draws nearer. You can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

images in this article via GoCards.com