FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
-Early production, Trimble's blast send Cards to the semifinal
Sandy Pearsall may have said it best. In an interview that we'll play on the Saturday Cardinal Couple Radio Show, I asked Coach P. about the overall power of the Louisville batters.." I was talking to the assistants about that the other afternoon. I said to them...what if we were the opposition and had to look across the diamond and see what Louisville had coming up to bat against us. Holy cow! We're scary..."
Louisville was scary, indeed on Thursday...pounding Syracuse for 12 hits and 12 runs in a 12-3 win.
Louisville wasted no time in unpacking the hitting sticks. In the bottom of the first, Katie Keller led things off with a single, moved to third on a Jordan Trimble bunt and scored when Maggie Ruckenbrod reached on a grounder to second.
Katelyn Mann cleared the bags with a triple to make it 3-0. Hannah Kiyohara's single brought Mann in and Kayla Soles smashed a triple to score Kiyohara. 5-0 Cards before the chalk dust on the first base line had settled.
Syracuse tried to make a contest of it. They settled down and got the Cards retired in the second with two hits but no runs. They cut the gap to 5-3 in the top of the third with a pair of home runs. Louisville was nowhere finished with the offensive firepower, though.
Soles started the home half of the third with a two out fielder's choice. Taner Folwer took one deep to left that appeared to be caught at the fence...but the umpires ruled it a trapped ball and Fowler was awarded first base. After Keller was plunked by a pitch to load the bases, Trimble emptied the bags with a blast to left-center. It was her sixth homer of the year and second grand slam. 9-3 Louisville.
The Cards added three more in the fourth. Kiyohara scored when she reached on a fielder's choice and Soles singled. That set the stage for Fowler's two run blast to left that made it 12-3 Cards. The game was ended after five innings because of the eight-run rule. Rachel LeCoq went three innings, allowing three runs on five hits. Caralisa Connell was "good Carl" in the final two...holding the Orange scoreless and striking out three.
Louisville advances to play #2 seed South Florida today at 6:30 p.m. The Bulls handled Providence 3-0 in the final game of the day.
In earlier action, #4 seed DePaul won a pitcher's duel with Georgetown 1-0. #1 seed Notre Dame shut out Seton Hall 6-0.
On a opening day of BIG EAST Tournament play where five teams managed a total of only four runs combined, Louisville showed why they were the offensive leader in just about every imaginable offense stat in the BIG EAST this season. May the bats be with you again tomorrow...Cards!
-Paulie
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Cards will win it all. Will they get to host a regional?
ReplyDeleteCurtis Framklin
We'll know Sunday...when they announce the NCAA Tournament bracket. Most seem to think that if Louisville can advance to they final game Saturday, they'll get a chance to host. A win Saturday would pretty much clinch that. When I asked Coach Pearsall that question, she was emphatic in her answer.
Delete"We're taking it one game at a time and we'll see what happens when we're done with the tournament."
Paulie
To put some data behind this...which only helps a little...if at all...
DeleteThe cards were 14th in the RPI on Monday. That does take into account the two losses to Notre Dame over the weekend. Interestingly enough, the 3 other teams in the Big East Semis, Notre Dame, South Florida, and DePaul are 42nd, 43rd, and 44th in the RPI (respectively)...wow. The top 16 seeds in the NCAA tourney get to host regionals...which is not necessarily the top 16 RPI teams.
How will the RPI shift as a result of tonight and tomorrows' games? Hard to predict, really. Then there's the question of how much the committee sticks to indications like RPI, versus other factors.
Ultimately, I'm with Coach P, play the games the best you can and see what happens when the brackets come out.