Softball Gets Underway in NCAA Tourney

 Fridays with Daryl Jeff

Hello readers and happy...uh...random weekend!

Jeff here filling in for the birthday celebrating and Bats involved Daryl this week.  Thought I'd try to start out the article kinda like she does, but I just can't mimic Daryl's happy tone that always comes through her writing.

Anyway, I'm here, and we've got an NCAA tournament in Softball to look into.

Softball in Knoxville

The Holly Aprile squad will be playing Indiana to start off the NCAA Softball tournament, but rather than heading north, they are, of course, off to the south to play in the Regional hosted by Tennessee.  Put on your sunglasses, that orange can be piercing!

The Cards and the Hoosiers will get the Regional underway with a 3pm start time.  You'll be able to find the video on ESPN2, which is nice as the later game, Tennessee vs Northern Kentucky apparently merely rates ESPN+ coverage.

The winners will play Saturday at 1pm, the losers will play at 3:30pm.  Beyond that, I'll leave you in the capable hands of Case and his Saturday column to outline the next steps in tomorrow's article.

I

Indiana arrives in Knoxville boasting a 42-16 record for the season.  They had a good run in the Big 10 tournament, eventually dropping to Northwestern in the championship game, 2-1.  Being in the Big 10, there are lots of teams with predominantly reddish logos in the latter part of their season (Nebraska, Rutgers, Minnesota, Ohio State) but they slipped in an extra in the midst with a game on April 11th where they hosted the Cards in Bloomington.  The Hoosiers did come out on the winning that one 10-5.  And, to be fair, they also got in a non-conference game against Western Kentucky the week before, adding to the red theme.

That battle was a two hour 23 minute affair, not terribly surprising with that much scoring, and with that much scoring both teams also used four pitchers in the circle.  UofL started with Alyssa Zabala, followed with Taylor Roby, Gabby Holloway, and finished out with Cassie Grizzard with none of them pitching more than two innings.

The aces of the Hoosier squad are Brianna Copeland, and Heather Johnson, both with over 100 innings pitched.  Copeland brings an ERA of 2.81, and Johnson a still respectable 3.58.  IU looks to have a pretty stable lineup, with eight players playing in 51 or more games, the worst comes up with a .225 batting average and six of them are hitting above .300.  Taryn Kern, and Taylor Minnick lead the team in batting averages with .426 and .404 respectively.

So the Cards have their work cut out for them.  In addition to just wanting to stay on the upper, winners, part of the bracket, advancing through the elimination bracket involves playing back to back games on Saturday, and Aprile will be keen to avoid that.

Podcast Plugging

With my normal Sunday articles, I always get to share the latest from the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, and I wouldn't want you, our dear readers, to miss out on a podcast plug just because it's Friday.

The CCRHP crew will be up and active tomorrow as per normal, but in the meantime, you can check out a new podcast hosted by Associate Head Coach of Louisville Volleyball Dan Meske.  The podcast is called Out of Rotation and is available, like the CCRHP at all significant podcast directories.  There are two full episodes plus a "Quick Hitter" available at this point.

Episode 0 is the "Quick Hitter" and is about five minutes long on the subject of giving, and receiving feedback in a coaching role, with good life advice for those of us that are in any sort of leadership role.

(Dan Meske jotting down notes for
his next podcast...or a grocery list...maybe
his top ten favorite songs?) 

Episode 1, the first "full" episode, has Raquel Lázaro as a guest and she discusses with Dan her upbringing... playing volleyball, through her progress through college play which of course culminated with UofL in the fall, and her experiences and challenges so far playing at the pro level in Italy.

The other full episode available is a discussion between Meske and Ryan Theis (pronounced Tice), where Theis shares his "grind" through the coaching profession and how he navigated the process to his first head coaching role at Ohio, and now head coach at Marquette for 10 years.

Dan Meske has a great voice for podcasting, and his podcast should be an entertaining listen for anyone interested in college volleyball.

Check out the CCRHP tomorrow, of course, but in the meantime, maybe check out Meske's work.

As always, Go Cards!

-- JMcA

Summertime Volleyball News -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Summertime Volleyball News

(Not many better middle blockers than Anna Hall)

For a pair of Louisville volleyball alums, the volleyball life continues on. Anna Stevenson Hall and Tori Dilfer-Stringer were both recently named to the 30-player Women's National Team roster for the 2023 Volleyball Nations League USA Volleyball.

Most recently. both alums have spent time playing professionally overseas. This duo saw many matches together at Louisville, both transferring into Louisville for the final college years, and helped lead Louisville to the program's first ever Final Four.

From their time in Louisville, then Tori Dilfer and then Anna Stevenson, were both named All-Americans and have their names on the wall inside L&N FCU Arena.

(Set 'em up, Tori ! No one did it finer)

Volleyball Nations League is an annual international indoor volleyball tournament. The world's top 16 teams will compete against each other that features each team playing four matches per week for three weeks. Following the conclusion of the preliminary rounds, the top eight teams will advance to the finals.

This year, the VNA will be held at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas. Team USA will qualify for the finals by being the host.

Team USA will face Serbia, Italy, Korea, Turkey, Croatia, Thailand, Japan, Brazil, Poland, Bulgaria, Germany, and China.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cards in WNBA -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

Five Cards remain on three WNBA rosters as of 5/16/23

update:  The Mystics cut Jaz and Em after this article was written and posted. 

As the WNBA squads get down to their roster sizes (11 or 12, depending on the franchise) we still find five Cardinals WBB players on three different rosters. 

Sadly, the Phoenix Mercury did cut both Liz Dixon and Kylee Shook. I was hoping, as a lot of Cardinal fans were, that one or both would remain on the roster to serve as backups to Brit Griner. But, it looks like the Phoenix squad is going to go with Megan Gustafson, who has four years of league experience, to play that role. Phoenix is down to 12 players on their roster.

The Chicago Sky has Dana Evans on their roster. Evans looks to be one that will make the opening day roster, despite there still being 16 players listed on the roster as of yesterday. Seven guards are still listed for the Sky, but two are rookies and two have just a year's experience. Also, three players haven't been assigned a roster number yet.  Evans was named to the All-Rookie team last year after leading all rookies in free throw percentage and hitting 40% from three point range. Kahleah Copper and Marina Mabrey look to maybe have the "jump" on starting spots, but now that Courtney Vandersloot went to the Liberty via free agency, and Allie Quigley is not playing this season...Dana should see plenty of minutes, we hope. And, she played her high school ball not far from Chicago and could help bring fans in. 

The Atlanta Dream have welcomed  Asia AD Durr home and she looks to be a great fit with the Dream. The Dream do have some quality guards on the roster in addition to AD, like Rhyne Howard, Danielle Robinson and Alisha Gray...but Durr scored in double figures in both Dream pre-season games so far. I love her chances of being a star at Atlanta. After the battles she had with COVID, it's so encouraging to see her back on the court...doing "incred-a-Durr" things. Shoot til your arm falls off, AD. 

That leaves us with the Washington Mystics. 

Jazmine Jones, Myisha Hines-Allen and Emily Engstler are on the roster, and I like all three players' chances of making the squad. The Mystics are down to 13 on their roster...Jones is a capable guard who was claimed off waivers from Indiana, and is one of seven guards on the roster. Engstler also came to Washington from Indiana, where she played 35 games last season I find it pretty incredulous that the Fever let her go, but they do still have Grace Berger on the roster, along with 10 rookies or first year players, so it may be a financial thing. Hines-Allen has been an essential part of the Mystics and works well in the lineup with Elena Della Donne. 

Friday is opening day for the WNBA's 27th season and the teams will play 40 regular season games in 2023. The Mystics play New York on opening night, Minnesota brings in Chicago, the Mercury goes to L.A. and Connecticut goes to Indiana. The other four WNBA squads (Las Vegas, Seattle, Atlanta and Dallas) play their first games on Saturday. 

We wish all our Cards greats a ton of success this season and will watch with interest any news on WNBA expansion. 

paulie

Diving into the NCAA Softball Tournament -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

NCAA SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

Louisville softball had plenty to celebrate Sunday night after hearing their name called in the NCAA Tournament. Paulie broke down Louisville's schedule and regional yesterday. But how does the rest of the field look? Who are some of the favorites or dark horses?

1-seed Oklahoma

The Sooners more than earned the top seed. Oklahoma is on pace for the best record in NCAA softball history and is chasing a three-peat.

2-seed UCLA

The Bruins historically are the best softball program of all-time. They were nearly unbeatable in the dominant Pac-12.

3-seed Florida State

The Seminoles have been great as long as Lonni Alameda has been their coach. FSU won the ACC again and just won a national championship a few years ago.

4-seed Tennessee

The Lady Vols took the SEC title and have arguably the best overall pitching staff in the country... oh, and the top home run hitter in the country.

5-seed Alabama

There were quite a few people questioning the high seed for the Crimson Tide- a team that finished tied for fourth overall in the SEC and recently loss ace and Louisville native Montana Fouts to an injury for an unspecified amount of time.

6-seed Oklahoma State

Another team that folks felt was seeded too high is the Cowgirls. Oklahoma State is riding a five-game losing streak including a pair of losses to teams not in the tournament. Half of their 14 losses came at the hands of Oklahoma, Texas, and Florida State.

7-seed Washington

The Huskies had one of the toughest schedules in the country. They're also just a few years removed from back-to-back WCWS semi-finals appearances.

8-seed Duke

The "baby" of the bunch is Duke. The Blue Devils' inaugural season was in 2017 and now they're on pace to host a Regional and Super Regional.

9-seed Stanford

The Cardinal finished fourth in the Pac-12, but two of those teams are already seeded above them. Stanford is one of 24 teams to break 40 wins this season.

10-seed LSU

A rough conference season hurt the draw for the Tigers, but they got a favorable match-up in the Regional. 

11-seed Arkansas

The Razorbacks are the fourth SEC team in the tournament, just more proof to show how good the SEC is this year. They took series wins against many of the top foes in their conference.

12-seed Northwestern

The Big Ten champs weren't given the respect they deserved, according to many. The Wildcats are no strangers to playing host in the Regional round and have earned that honor again.

13-seed Texas

Finishing runner-up in the Big 12 in softball is like finishing runner-up in women's basketball during the UConn streak- the best you can get. Getting swept at home against Baylor to close out the regular season appears to have done some damage in the Longhorns' seeding.

14-seed Georgia

The Bulldogs finished runner-up in the SEC in the regular season, but ride a three-game losing streak into the NCAA Tournament, including bowing out in their first game of the conference tournament.

15-seed Utah

The Utes have been hot as of late and even upset UCLA in the Pac-12 championship game.

16-seed Clemson

The Tigers snuck in the national seedings. They're another young team, after starting their program in 2017.

Besides Oklahoma, who has the best chance of winning the championship?

I think UCLA or Tennessee is the best team not named Oklahoma in the tournament. Both teams are well-rounded on offense and pitching, and are familiar with blowing out opponents.

Who is over-seeded?

Alabama comes to mind. A team that finished fourth in the SEC doesn't really deserve the fifth overall seed. Losing their top pitcher, who has two perfect games this season, raises questions on how well they can compete.

Oklahoma State finished third in the Big 12, a conference that only has seven teams, and they were just a hair over .500 in conference play. They've slumped big time as of late, losing 11 of their last 13 games.

Are there any double-digit seeded dark horses?

Texas' kryptonite has been Oklahoma, going 0-4 against the Sooners this year. Outside of that, they are great. They have one of the best batting averages in the country and scored on about 70% of their hits. They also rarely strike out.

Clemson was overshadowed but quietly put together a 46-9 record. Valerie Cagle is one of the best dual-threat players out there, having recorded 74 hits at the plate and a 1.20 ERA in the circle with 177 strikeouts. Getting no hit against Duke in the ACC semifinals feels more like a fluke than anything.

Which non-seeded teams have the best shot of advancing to a Super Regional?

Wichita State compiled a 43-10 record but being a part of the AAC caused them to get overlooked by many. Sydney McKinney is the only player in the country with a batting average above .500 (.519) and was taken first overall in the Athletes Unlimited draft. She's .33 points ahead of the next highest batting average. As a whole, the Shockers hit the ball well. They're matched up in a Regional against Oklahoma State, a team I think is already over-seeded.

Charlotte played half the ACC this year and went 4-2 in those games. They faced Duke, the host team in their Regional, and lost by one earlier this year. The 49ers are not an offensive-minded team with a .264 team batting average, but they hit a high amount of extra base hits, allowing them to score higher than what their batting average would suggest. This is a gritty team that can surprise some folks.

Auburn finished third in the SEC and broke the 40-win mark, but their 8-7 road game record hurt. They have series wins against seeded teams like Alabama  and LSU. Maddie Penta is one of the best pitchers in the country with a 1.10 ERA and 287 strikeouts.

Virginia Tech is the nation's top home run hitting team. Louisville was reminded of that in the ACC Tournament. What the Hokies have lacked in pitching this year they have made up for on offense at six runs per game. 

Boston University (not College) coincidentally faces Virginia Tech in the opening round of the Georgia Regional. Yeah, Georgia, I'm putting you on upset alert. The Terriers went 51-8 this season that includes wins against Baylor, Boston College, Georgia Tech, and Cal State Fullerton. Their 1.55 ERA is top five in the country.

Central Arkansas got a good draw in a Montana Fouts-less Alabama Regional. Defense wins championships and the Bears are great at it. The pitching staff carries a 1.36 ERA and their fielding percentage of .980 is tied for sixth-best in the country. Central Arkansas' opponents scored less than 100 runs in 54 games this year.

Notes

Only four teams have scored double-digit runs in the final game dating back to the first softball championship game in 1982.

18 games resulted in the loser being shutout. Nine more games resulted in the loser scoring one run.

UCLA has won the most championships with 13. If you deduct the 1995 vacated win, the Bruins have won 12 times.

Oklahoma has six titles, all since 2000, and all under current coach Patty Gasso. They've won four of the last six titles. There was no tournament in 2020 due to COVID-19.

Florida State is the only ACC team to win the national championship, defeating Washington in 2018.

While we aren't doing a Pick Em for the softball tournament, you are more than welcome to create your own if you'd like. Spoiler: mine would have Oklahoma winning it all if I made one.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!
Jared

Softball Cards travel to Knoxville to start NCAA Tournament -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

LOUISVILLE SOFTBALL TO START TOURNAMENT PLAY AGAINST INDIANA.

(Cards celebrate hearing their name called. Photos by Jared Anderson)

Yes, the University of Louisville softball team is in the 2023 NCAA Softball Tournament and will get things started Friday at 3 p.m in the Knoxville Regional against Indiana. The game will be shown on ESPN 2. 

The tournament is a double elimination format, which means that you have to lose twice to be eliminated in the bracket. The other two teams in the Knoxville Region are Northern Kentucky University and host Tennessee. 

The ACC received six bids to the 64 team tournament. Florida State was the #3 seed overall and will host, starting out against Marist.  Duke is the #8 seed and opens against George Mason. Clemson got the #16 seed, will host a regional and face UNC Greensboro in their first game. Also in is Virginia Tech, who will open against Boston University in the Athens, GA region and Notre Dame, who begins play versus Oregon. 

Louisville (35-18) has faced IU once this season. The Cards travelled to Bloomington to play the Hoosiers and dropped a 10-5 contest on April 11th.. Louisville has faced NKU twice this year, defeating them 7-0 on March 2nd and 2-0 on March 5th. 

The winner of the Knoxville Regional advances to the Super Regionals, where they'd play the winner of the Austin Regional (Texas, Texas State, Texas A&M or Seton Hall)

Other representatives from the area include Kentucky, who will face Miami (OH) in Evanston, Ill...home of the Northwestern Wildcats. 

A full NCAA bracket, including all 64 teams,  can be found at  NCAA Softball D1 tournament bracket

THEY SAID IT:

HOLLY APRILE POST SELECTION SHOW

ROBY/OTIS POST SELECTION SHOW

We'll have full coverage of all the Cards contests in the NCAA Tournament and much more leading up to it. 

paulie.

paul

Happy Mothers Day -- Championship Roundup - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Happy Mothers Day

A salute and shout-out to the moms out there. Today is your day. If your Mom is still alive, treat her very well today. If you are a Mom and reading us today...Happy Mothers Day to you! If your Mom has passed on, hopefully you'll have fond memories of her today. 

Championship Roundup

Several ACC Championships were in action this weekend where UofL was involved, so let's take a look at them.

Rowing

In competition in Raleigh, NC, the rowing team finished seventh overall in the championship.

The Cards won two races in the event, the Petite Varsity Eight, as well as in the Second Petite Varsity Eight.

Track & Field

Also in Raleigh, NC, Outdoor Track & Field finished off the ACC Championship.  The women's team finished overall ninth.

Several school records were set in action yesterday.  The women's 200m has a new school best time by Kiyah Yeast of 23.48 seconds.  Katie Martin set, again, the school record in the 400m hurdles at 57.22 seconds, which was good for a second place overall finish.  And finally, the 4-100m relay again set a school record, the quartet beating their previous record set two weeks ago, finishing in 44.55.  The team consisted of Taylor Herbert, Kiyah Yeast, Olivia Jenkins, and Synclair Savage.

Softball

Unfortunately, UofL was eliminated from the Softball Championship on Thursday in their game against Virginia Tech, but to put a bow on the tourney, Florida State beat Duke in the finals with some 2-out heroics in the 7th inning to walk off the Blue Devils 2-1.

UofL awaits their fate for NCAA Tournament selection with some, but not complete, confidence that they will have a bid.  On the verges of, or just finding their way into the various Top 25 rankings for Softball, and holding a RPI ranking of 34, give the Cards are good resume' to get into the tournament.  A quick scan around various conferences didn't show too many upset automatic qualifiers getting in, so that helps the Cards.

The NCAA Softball tournament is structured as essentially four rounds of double-elimination tournaments.  The Regionals are selected in the selection show with four teams in each region for 64 teams total, where they compete in a double elimination tournament.  The winner of each region advances to a Super Regional of two teams each.  The Super Regional is a best out of 3 affair, which is, effectively, a double-elimination tournament of two teams, if you want to think of it that way.  Advancing from the Super Regionals gets you to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma city.  Eight teams participate and they are arranged effectively as two four team double elimination tournaments, except that the loser of second round game will "cross over" into the elimination bracket of the other section.  The winners of the four team double elimination brackets then face off in a best of three (again, effectively double elimination between two teams), with the winner being the overall NCAA champion.

The selection show is tonight at 7pm on ESPN2, which is of course, also streamable.  Let's hope for a good placement for the Cards.

Graduation

UofL (and several other schools in the area) held their commencement ceremony yesterday.  Too many athletes graduated for us to have a hope of listing them all, but you can scroll through the Twitter widget on the right side of the site...interspersed with Track and Field results, and see the tweets from the various programs celebrating the graduation of their players.

We would like to call out one additional graduation that you won't find in the twitter widget, however.

Katy Whitesell graduated from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary with, I believe, a Masters in Social Work.  Katy is, as many of our readers will be aware, is the fiance' of Cardinal Couple writer and photographer Jared Anderson.

Our biggest hurrahs to all of the graduates.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

Four for the show yesterday, as Jared was off cheering on Katy at her graduation as mentioned above.  He really needs to get his priorities straight, ya know?

A great show that started off a bit out in left field of discussion before we brought it back around to have a good discussion about Softball and a missed call at home plate, along with examining the prospects of the team in the NCAA tournament.

You can find the audio at Spotify podcasters: 

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Spring-Sports-Winding-Down-e240cgq

and of course at any decent podcast directory.

-- JMcA

ACC Championship Season -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Track and Field Hold 8th

After a successful start to the ACC Championship meet on Thursday, Louisville women's track and field didn't make much impact on day two. On the men's side, Louisville got a big win in the Decathlon from Paul Kallenberg. His ACC title came after setting a facility record and placing second in the all-time school record for total points in the event. The points from his victory helped pull Louisville up to 7th on the men's team side. On the women's side, Louisville fell to 8th. 

Scott looks to repeat her
victory from 2022

The Cards got second place finishes from Synclair Savage (long jump) and Aliyah Welter (pole vault) on Thursday to help them accrue 19 points, good for third overall. Carly Pujol scored a seventh-place finish in the pole vault to score the remaining points for the team. Katie Martin also set a new school-record in the 400M hurdles (breaking her own mark) to qualify for today's final. 

On Friday, Louisville saw three Cards set new personal bests. Madeline Castleberry (3000m steeplechase), Alba Cuns Iglesias (triple jump), and Brooklyn Hammons (shot put) all broke their own records, but only Cuns Iglesias scored for the team, taking home eighth to score the Cards' only point on the day. Saturday will see the Cards compete in seven of the twelve events. Those will start at noon, after a change to the schedule. Emily Scott, Jenna Hensley, and Soledad Jean will take on the field in the high jump, with Scott looking to defend her title. Zoe Yeast and Brooklynn Hammons will compete in the discus throw to round out the field events. On the track, the Cards will compete in the 4x100, 4x400, 400m hurdles, 200m, and 5000m races, with two runners in the distance race. 

Rowing Sends One Boat to Grand Final

The ACC Rowing Championship is being held at Lake Wheeler in Raleigh, North Carolina. Yesterday saw prelim action with Louisville having four boats compete. The Cards sent three Varsity Eight boats and one Varsity Four boat. It's the III Varsity Eight squad that qualified for today's Grand Final, after they edged UNC by just 0.4 seconds over a 7-minute race. Odds are that by the time you're seeing this, the races have already concluded, with action scheduled to begin at 8:05 this morning. Louisville's other three boats will all compete in the Petite Finals after finishing below the cutoff for the Grand Finals in their respective heats.

ACC Softball Continues

Despite Louisville's knockout, the ACC Softball Championship continues through the weekend, with the results potentially having an impact on Louisville's tournament hopes. With the long softball season, single elimination tournaments won't likely have much impact on resume building for teams that aren't actually participating, but you never know. That's particularly true in the event that a bid is stolen. 

That isn't particularly likely to happen this year. After knocking off Louisville in the 4-5 game, Virginia Tech had the great honor of being run-ruled by the top-seeded Seminoles. FSU took care of business with a 9-1 win in six innings. With VT being the only team seeded lower than Louisville playing on Friday, there wasn't much chance of anyone other than them having to "steal" a bid, as the top-three teams in the league should be comfortably in.

Photo via ACC

Taking on the 3rd-ranked FSU squad will be Duke. Outside of the shocking pair of losses to Notre Dame, Duke and FSU are the only two teams to beat Louisville in conference this season. The Cards didn't play Clemson or Virginia Tech in the regular season. Duke had to get through the Tigers to advance, and they did so in fairly spectacular fashion: by getting a no-hitter from a freshman. Cassidy Curd is one of two Blue Devils that kept Sarah Gordon out of the top-ten finalists for the Freshman of the Year Award. Perhaps someone should have told the ACC voters that, since Gordon won the league's honor. Either way, Curd threw 113 pitches to earn her 16th win of the season, ringing up eight strikeouts and hitting two batters. The two HBP were the only marks that kept the game from being perfect. The Duke offense did just enough to support the pitching effort, scoring one run each in the second and third innings to lead to the 2-0 win. 

Today's championship will be played at 1PM on ESPN2.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll be back on the airwaves (Kind of? Maybe? I'm a little shaky on the physics of the internet.) this week after taking Derby Day off. There will be just four of us, so you can stop holding your breath if you listened to Daryl yesterday. Jared will be out as he attends commencement for his wife-to-be. We'll have plenty to keep us busy as spring sports seasons wind down and we try to forecast softball's NCAA hopes. As always, 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

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Softball falls in ACC tournament 10-8 to VaTech -- Remembering Denny Crum -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

Hello again readers and welcome to another weekend. Now that Derby has come and gone, I think its safe to say the summertime blues are in swing.  It would be nice if staff got the same summer break as students but alas, we do not.  I plan on improving my golf game and working on our house a lot while the days are longer!  You know if there's a great show out there, I'm gonna find my way to it. LOL 

Softball

Photos: Jared Anderson 

The Softball Cards fell in the first round of the ACC tournament on Thursday afternoon, 10-8 to the Virginia Tech Hokies. 

Louisville came out aggressive to start this game, Korbe Otis reaching on a walk and stealing second base before getting out at third on a double play after Taylor Roby’s at bat. ACC Freshman of the Year Sarah Gordon singled to LF allowing Easton Lotus to score putting the Cards up 1-0. 

The Hokies decided they would wait until the 3rd inning to unleash the offense and they managed to put up 4 runs then and 2 in the 4th all thanks to homeruns and a couple fielding errors by the Cardinals.

Zabala (14-9) took the loss. She started in the circle for Louisville giving up 5 hits, 6 runs (4 homeruns) and struck out 6 in 3 innings of work. Roby picked up where Zabala left off walking the first batter she faced before the defense took care of the next 3 batters to stop the bleeding.

The Cards looked to chip away at the VT lead as Daisy Hess took a walk to start the bottom of the 4th before Hannah File connected to send one over the wall and cut the Hokie lead 6-3. Louisville had two runners in scoring position with 2 outs before Lotus struck out swinging halting the Cardinal rally.

VT was not going to stop pouring salt on the wounds, they knew they had potential future opponents watching and they wanted to spark some fear for those watching. The Hokies plated another run in the top of the 5th after another fielding error by UofL to make it 7-3. The Cards responded with a 3 up, 3 down in the bottom half of the inning including two of the outs coming in foul territory.

Things were looking grim for the Cards by the 6th inning where VT continued to put the bat on the ball, connecting for a double, a successful bunt and then another double this time to right center to score two more runs and push the lead to 9-3. Much to the sighs and groans of the Cardinal Couple group chat, this one seemed out of reach. 

But then! There was life! With 2 outs in the bottom half of the 6th, the Cardinals mustered some offense when Makayla Hurst homered over the left field wall also scoring Vanessa Miller after she singled in her at bat. Otis walked, Lotus and Roby singled, scoring Otis. Gordon singled to score Lotus, Hess singled to score Mia Forsythe who pinch ran for Roby to make it 9-8 VT lead and the Cardinals were threatening to tie it up. A passed ball gave the Cards the opportunity to do so when Gordon stole home.

The umpires at Cardinal Couple (Jared and Daryl) can confirm she was safe at home but the ump behind the plate called her out even though VT didn’t apply a tag on her until halfway up the leg while also blocking the plate for Sarah’s arrival. Holly Aprile asked for a review and it was upheld. It was incorrect, but they stuck to it. Inning over.

VaTech would tack on another insurance run in the top of the 7th but with the tying run at the plate, the Cardinals would come up empty in the last half of the frame.    

Louisville will await their fate in the post season when the matchups are revealed.  Are the Cards in? Give us your thoughts in the comments section.

This year's NCAA softball bracket field of 64 will be revealed at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 14 on ESPN2.

Remembering Denny Crum

(either on our way out of or heading into do a show at 790am)

I wanted to make sure I mentioned my own condolences to the Crum family for the loss they suffered this week as the rest of the country also mourns the loss of this legendary figure in our city's history.  Denny Crum holds a special place in almost every Louisville fan's heart and core memories.   My memories are a little different because I remember the Denny post coaching career... I know he played a huge part in my dad's fandom and I grew up appreciating Denny's impact.  

Then I got my internship in college when I started at UofL and had the opportunity to regularly cross paths with Coach Crum at the 790am radio station.  He would bring in his baked goods to share with everyone.  I got to try some banana bread and I have never been able to find any that compares to it.. (don't tell my grandma i said that).  He even came in early one day prior to his show with Joe B. Hall back then and indulged me in watching the 1980 championship DVD that I just so happen to have with me that day.   

Coach Crum only ever displayed kindness, gratitude, patience and embraced everything it is to be a Louisvillian in the 50+ years he lived here.   

We appreciate you Coach, and I will miss seeing you in the crowd at the games.  I think the University should think about reserving an honorary seat for Coach at the Yum! Center, overlooking Denny Crum court. 

Rest in peace 

The University is honoring Coach's life on Monday at the Yum! Center if you would like to celebrate.  Tickets are free but you do have to get tickets.  

Shoutout to the graduating class this weekend!

Enjoy the festivities, the day flies by!  Here is my cap from 2015! 

Also shoutout to my mother and all the good mommas out there on their weekend.  I feel like I will never be able to show mine as much as she truly deserves.  Make sure you enjoy them while you can <3  Hugs to everyone who is missing theirs.  

CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR PODCAST

(Jerry and Madeline will NOT be on the Saturday podcast, but Paulie 

digs this picture of them with him, so...there's that.)

We'll take to the podcast Saturday at 11 a.m. to discuss the week that was in Louisville women's sports. We'll talk "Denny" a bit, as well, and (hold your breath) we just might actually have all five of us on the podcast. There are only about a billion ways to listen to us, so...if you miss the weekly event, we are going to have to have a long discussion with you, possibly bring in some outside parties to sit in our meeting, and Paulie will probably bring donuts or tacos, depending on what time we meet. Legal counsel welcome! There is a link below. 

LINK

 

As Always, 

Go Cards! 

~Daryl 

Softball Begins ACC Tournament -- ACC Softball Awards -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Softball Opens ACC Tournament Against Virginia Tech

Louisville softball opens up their 2023 ACC Tournament trip against 5-seed Virginia Tech. The Cards and Hokies did not face each other this year. Virginia Tech swept the series last season in Blacksburg and hold a 15-8 advantage over UofL all time.

The Cards enter the tournament as the 4-seed after going 16-7 in conference play and 35-17 overall. Taylor Roby and Alyssa Zabala have been the dynamic duo in the circle this season, commanding a majority of the time. They have 2.42 and 2.84 ERAs, respectively. Sam Booe, Gabby Holloway, and Cassie Grizzard have each contributed from the bullpen.

As a team, Louisville hits .317 with six Cards hitting above .300. Korbe Otis leads the charge at .399 with 67 hits. Roby's 22 home runs is a team-high and is tied for the lead nationally. Six Cards have at least 24 RBI's. Sarah Gordon leads the team in doubles with 12 while Otis has seven triples. 

The Cards' woes have mainly come from a defensive standpoint with a plethora of fielding and throwing errors. Louisville has had great success with zero or one errors per game while anything above that has been a factor in a majority of the losses.

Virginia Tech enters the game 36-17 on the year with a 14-10 ACC record. They've found success from the defensive end. However, they have run-ruled 11 opponents this year.

The Hokies hit .298 as a team with just four regulars hitting above the .300 mark. Emma Ritter paces the team with 61 hits and a .365 batting average. They have five players with double-digit home runs Bre Peck leading the team with 15.

Emma Lemley has been the ace for Virginia Tech. She carries a 3.37 ERA with 262 strikeouts against just 42 walks. Lyndsey Grein has also seen a fair amount of time in the circle with a 4.08 ERA. She has recorded 89 strikeouts to 39 walks.

Louisville and Virginia Tech will take the field at 1:30 p.m. today and will be aired on ACC Network.

In the first day of action, 9-seed Syracuse took down 8-seed Virginia 8-2 and 10-seed Georgia Tech upset host 7-seed Notre Dame 8-1.

Several Softball Accolades in ACC

The ACC awards and teams were announced yesterday and there was no shortage of recognition for Louisville players.

Sarah Gordon was named ACC Freshman of the Year. The catcher has played every game this season behind the plate. She ranks second on the team with a .385 batting average and 62 hits while her 12 doubles is a team high.

Gordon is the first player in Louisville history to be named ACC Freshman of the Year. She was recently named to the National Freshman of the Year Top 25 list. Gordon was also named to the All-ACC First Team.

Korbe Otis joins Gordon on the All-ACC First Team. The sophomore center field led the team in batting average, hits, and triples this season. She was a perfect 8-8 in stolen bases and set the portogram record with a 35-game reached base streak.

Taylor Roby was the third Cardinal to be named to the All-ACC First Team. The graduate student retained her do-it-all role by leading the Cards in the circle with a 2.42 ERA and powering the team at the plate with 22 home runs and 55 rbis.

Daisy Hess was named to the All-ACC Second Team. The shortstop transferred into Louisville this season and made an immediate impact. She helped command a youthful infield while hitting .342 with 52 hits.

Easton Lotus was named to the All-ACC Third Team. After missing much of last season due to a leg injury, the sophomore started every game at second base. She closed out the regular season on a 16-game hitting streak and hit .291 with 48 hits on the year.

Alyssa Zabala was named to the All-ACC Third Team. The freshman pitcher was quick out of the gate this season with her impact on the pitching staff. Her 14 wins was best on the team as were her 87 strikeouts. Zabala carried a 2.84 ERA but just a 1.19 WHIP.

We hope to see plenty more in the future with so much young talent on the team.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared