Golf and Baseball Result - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Golf Leaderboard

After two days of play, Louisville Women's Golf sits in 10th place of the preliminary rounds.  The initial winnowing of the field, which will happen after today's action, will take the top 15 teams on for another day of play.  The top 9 individuals not on advancing teams will advance as well.

Molly Skapik had a good day of golf, leading the Cards in the clubhouse with a 1 under par for the day, for a total 3 over for her two days.  Lauren Hartlage stuggled through much of the teeing off on 18 for +5, but hopefully pulled herself out of the doldrums with the eagle that she got on the last hole of the day.  While the other members of the team, Delaney Shah, Olivia Cason, and Kristin Engle all ended up back in the clubhouse with +5s for the day.

Again, the consistency across the team is serving the Cards well, putting them in solid position to be able to advance to at least another day of play on Monday with a solid round today.  The squad will also be looking to put themselves in the best possible position to advance beyond Monday's play.  They will need to at least maintain the status quo to do so as a team, as the top 10 teams advance beyond Monday.

Baseball Rounds Out the Season With a Win

Louisville Baseball has Notre Dame's number, winning the last 16 meetings between the teams, but
sometimes the wins are a bit nerve-wracking.  Yesterday's come from behind win wasn't the soothing romp we would've like it to be, but the Cards got the job done, finally taking the lead in the bottom of the 8th with 4 runs in the frame for the 10-7 win.

The Cards were powered largely by Josh Stowers, with 2 touch-em-alls in the game with 6 RBIs, including a 3-run shot in the bottom of the 8th.

The win to close out the season lands UofL in the 5th "seed" for the ACC tournament, putting them in the D pool with #4 Duke and #9 Wake Forest.  The Cards will have to win both games in the pool play to advance to the four team single-elimination bracket for the championship.

The other accomplishment with the finale game win was to reach 40 wins on the season for the Dan McDonnell squad.  That is now 7 consecutive seasons with 40 wins, and for the last 6 of those, they reached the mark during the regular season.

The Diamond Dwellers will not just be looking to advance from pool play in order to win the ACC championship, there will also be an eye towards their rankings as they have made a late season run up the ladder.  If they can, with potentially 4 games in the ACC tournament, climb to the Top 16 vicinity (they're currently 25th ranked, so this is a long-shot), they then stand a chance to host a Regional in the NCAA tournament.

A Moment of Commentary

Who, on earth, could possibly think this ACC Baseball tournament format is a good one?  First you have a pool play format that results in many of the 2nd games for teams being played with no mathematical chance of advancing.  You have to go 2-0 in pool play to advance, unless you're the top seeded team in the pool, in which case you can potentially drop one of the games.

OK, I'm not a huge baseball fan, in general, but I enjoy following Dan McDonnell's squad late in the season after other UofL Athletics have wrapped up...and then every year, this monstrosity of a tournament format is foisted upon us.

Ultimately, this is a week that I have to figuratively grit my teeth and get through, to get to the more sane NCAA tournament format.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

 The four knuckleheads were all re-united in the studio for the first time in...months?  Merriment was
had, and I think we even managed to convey some useful information for those listening.

A special "Thanks!" to Arica Carter for the interview with us.

Check out the fun with the Facebook Live video at https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/2038248432865096/

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JMcA