Softball Cards drop two in Red & Black Classic

Brittany York and her University of Louisville softball teammates lost both games of the first day of the Red and Black Classic Saturday at Ulmer Stadium.

Tough afternoon for Sandy Pearsall's squad on the diamond yesterday...falling 2-1 to Hofstra and 9-5 to #5 Michigan.

The Cards began the day against the Pride and fell behind early 2-0 when the Hofstra hitters tallied both runs in the top of the first inning. The Cards got one back in the sixth when Kristen Austin singled and scored on a Vanessa James single but couldn't produce any more runs in the inning or the rest of the game. Kristen Wadwell took the loss for Louisville, allowing 7 hits and striking out 6 in 7 innings of work.

Louisville started out huge against Michigan in the next game, jumping out to a 5-0 lead after two innings. Jordan Trimble's three run base clearer in the second inning had the Cards in great shape to win the game, but Michigan roared back with 4 runs in the third and 4 more in the fifth to grab a 8-5 advantage. They would tack on an insurance run the sixth with Nikki Nemitz driving in her fourth RBI of the game on a sacrifice fly. Wadwell (6-5) took the loss in the second game also, allowing 5 runs on 5 hits in 3 innings of relief. Chelsea Leonard started the game for the Cards and went 4 innings...allowing 4 runs.

The Cards take back to the field today, weather permitting, against both Hofstra and Michigan today. Opening pitch against Hofstra is scheduled for 2 p.m. and they face Michigan at 4 p.m.

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Congratulation to Louisville's Mercy Academy for winning the 2010 Kentucky Girls High School basketball tournament in Bowling Green Saturday night with a 71-61 win over Scott County in the final game. Mercy battled to a 35-32 lead at halftime but came out with a strong 3rd quarter, outscoring Scott County 20-12 and maintained the lead for the win. Julianne Miller netted 23 points for the Jaguars and Malisa Cruz added 12 points and 14 rebounds to lead Mercy past the Lady Cardinals. Kristin Stainback led Scott County with 26 points in the defeat.

Mercy advanced to the final game with a 53-45 win over Rowan County Saturday morning and Scott County punched their ticket to the final with a 62-59 win over Rockcastle County. The Jaguars took a 24-11 halftime lead over Rowan County in the semifinal and held on for the win. Ellen Sholtes had 22 points for Mercy, including 11-14 from the charity stripe.

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Two great horses races yesterday for the top two fillies and mares. Zenyatta roared from dead last in the stretch to win at Santa Anita but Rachel Alexandra could not hold off Zardana in the final furlong at Fairgrounds and finished second by half a length. Zardana, ironically, is the stable mate of Zenyatta and both horses are trained by John Shirreffs and owned by Jerry Moss.

After the race, Rachel Alexandra's trainer Steve Assmussen refused to commit to the highly anticipated match up between his filly and Zenyatta in the April 9th Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park. Assmussen did not expect Rachel to get beat and vowed to be more cautious with her future races, citing a possible lack of training as the reason she lost at the Fairgrounds. The $5 million purse for the Apple Blossom is only guaranteed if both Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra run.

Congratulations to my better half Sonja, who correctly predicted that Zardana would top Rachel Alexandra and made a huge score in exacta, trifecta and Pick 3 wagers. She's buying Sunday brunch. For the whole restaurant.

Written by Paul
3/14/10