Cards fall to Syracuse 2-1 in Big East Championship game

The softball Cards lose a close one to the 5th seeded Syracuse Orange on Saturday at Ulmer Stadium. For Louisville, just a case of not being able to get the runners to the plate ..as they stranded eight base runners in the game.

Syracuse borrowed a page from the Louisville strategy playbook by jumping on the opponent early and relying on pitching. The 'Cuse was able to push a run across the plate in both the first and second innings against Cardinal pitching.

Louisville's lone run came in the bottom of third when Melissa Roth opened the inning with a walk, moved to second on a Jennifer Esteban single and then raced home on a wild pitch from Syracuse hurler Jenna Caira.

The Cards had a chance to tie it in their last at bat. Roth walked and was granted second base on an illegal pitch. She was thrown out on a Esteban fielder's choice...but Esteban advanced to second with a steal while Chelsea Bemis was at bat. The game ended, though on a double play when Bemis drilled one down the first base line that the Syracuse first baseman made an incredible catch on and tossed the ball to second to double up Esteban who thought the ball got thru for a hit.

Jenna Caira got the win for the gusty Syracuse team but she needs to restudy the rulebook about what and what not a pitcher can do while on the mound. I know she got called for at least 10 illegal pitches during the game...the last one got Syracuse coach so mad that he stormed the field, argued the call with the umpires and got tossed from the game.

Syracuse gets the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships with the Big East tournament win. It is expected that Louisville, Notre Dame and DePaul will receive at large bids to the tournament. The selection show will be on ESPNU Sunday night at 10 p.m.

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Congratulations to LOOKIN AT LUCKY, Bob Baffert and new jockey Martin Garcia for their win in the Preakness Saturday. FIRST DUDE held on for second and JACKSON BEND got third. Took then a while to sort out the photo for second.

Best racing story of the day. Very good friend of ours sends Paul to the track with a couple of dollars for wagers. He plans on getting these bet and then off to Ulmer for softball. He uses one of the automatic wagering machines and keys in the information. Since the friend had slightly overpaid him for the amount of wagers she wanted...Paul adds a couple of horses to the bet on the bottom leg of the trifecta. He likes the bet the way he had created it and punches out a duplicate ticket of it for him.

You guessed it. He added JACKSON BEND in the third spot. They already had LOOKIN AT LUCKY on top with SUPER SAVER...and about 4 or 5 horses picked to run second...including FIRST DUDE. The trifecta paid $1385 for a $1 wager. They also hit the exacta which paid $94.30 on a dollar. He never made it to Ulmer...and yes, the IRS will get their share of it...

The best part is that she knows about the exacta but Paul hasn't told her yet about the addition to win the trifecta for both of them. We're having lunch this afternoon with her and he'll present her the winning ticket then.

By Sonja
5/17/10