Spring Weekend -- SUNDAY Cardinal Couple

Spring Saturdays

Spring has sprung, though with snow falling at the moment, you may be forgiven for questioning that assertion.  In college sports terms, however, we're solidly into spring.

Basketball Game Day

First, though, we still have some winter sports in action, so let's take a moment to look at today's action in basketball.

I know this is the most popular sport here on Cardinal Couple, and I don't want to overlook any game on the regular season schedule, but the women are in Pittsburgh for their regular season finale, and, well, frankly Pitt just doesn't pose that much of a threat to the Cards.  At 2-13 in conference, and 11-18 overall, their record doesn't inspire.  Their only really meaningful win in conference was a shocker over a middle-of-the-conference-pack North Carolina team.

As long as the Cards come out and play their game, this one should just be a basic romp at the Peterson Events Center.  Let's hope Asia Durr has really found her stroke again, and that her 47 pt performance against NC State wasn't just a result of adrenaline for a big game.  Let's also hope that AC finds here shooting groove again.  She's certainly able to contribute in other ways, but she is so much more of a threat when she gets that sweet shooting stroke going from outside.

Hopefully they can treat this one as a good warm-up for next weekend's ACC tournament games.
  The Cards are a lock for the double bye, so they won't be playing until Friday, but the opponent won't be known until Thursday, although once today's games are finished and tournament seeds are fully locked in, there will only be 3 possible opponents that make it to the Friday game against the Cards.

Paulie will be in attendance for the whole tournament in Greensboro, so look for his updates on Twitter and here on the site for all of your ACC tournament news.

"The Monkeys" will be back in Greensboro. Tall tales to follow. 

For today's game, it's a 2 p.m. start, and if you're not in Pittsburgh, it's available on the ACC Network Extra.

Hopefully, a contest where Louisville gets out early, increases that lead and all have good games, plenty of playing time for the bench and no injuries

In the meantime, we've got lots of other sports to talk about, so let's get to it.

Softball Takes 2

Indiana State

Softball finished off the weather-altered, and shortened, Cardinal Classic at Ulmer yesterday with
UofL playing in two games.

The first started at 10:30am, and you can see Jared, Daryl, and I all being distracted while we watched the ACC Network Extra stream of it during the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour yesterday.

The Sycamores of Indiana State were the opponent, and they fell 3-0 largely on a strength of a Caitlin Ferguson 2-shot touch-em-all in the 4th inning, her 2nd of the season.  The runner scored was Jordyn Wolfe, who was pinch running for Megan Hensley who got on base with a walk.  Kyra Snyder sent a double out to right-center to bring pitcher Taylor Roby around after she got her turn on the basepaths by being hit by a pitch, to get to the final tally of 3.

Roby was also in the circle for the whole game and picks up the win stat.

IUPUI

Scheduled for 4:30, but not getting underway until 6:15, the 2nd game for the Cards, and the 4th of the day at Ulmer matched up the Cards with the IUPUI Jaguars with much the same result.

Megan Hensley earns the complete game win in this 3-0 decision and help ensure her stat with a late game RBI to left with 2 outs in the 7th, bring home Celene Funke who line shot down the right base line just cleared the glove of the first baseman, and just barely stayed fair.

The other pair of runs for the Cards were in the top of the top of the 2nd inning with Kyra Snyder crossing the plate on a sacrifice fly by Maddie Newman.  Sidney Melton got the RBI for the other run, showcasing her speed, and why slap hitting works by beating out the throw to 1st.  Incidentally, Melton is the last active member of the All-Syd/Sid/Szyd team named in the September 23, 2014 edition of Cardinal Couple:

http://cardinalcouple.blogspot.com/2014/09/tuesday-cardinal-couple-all-sydsid-team.html

Jared, Daryl, and I all made it out to Ulmer for this one, with Daryl taking on post-game question asking duties, a portion of which you can find at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l870LK-b07Q

My super-subjective analysis of what I saw made me excited for this team and the future of this program.  When I first started following UofL Softball in the early part of the decade, I was enthusiastic because I saw a team that didn't make mental errors, basically at all.  Someone may bobble a ball, mistime a swing, or make other sorts of execution errors but they, to a first approximation, didn't make mental errors like throwing to the wrong base, or throwing a ball to a base when there was no chance of catching a runner.

In the intervening years, I started to see the team do things that would leave me thinking, "Why would you do that?" and as a fan, that was frustrating for me.  What I saw last night was a team that showed discipline and discernment.  I saw balls get held when there was no chance of beating the runner with the throw to 1st.  I saw cut offs made by the right player, and balls thrown in from the outfield to the right place to stop the play.  This gets me excited to see what this team can become this year, and hope for the future growth of the program in the future.

I also saw smart base-running, and Oh. So. Much. Speed. on the base-paths.  Last night was fun softball to watch.  This is only a subjective analysis from really watching one game, so far, but what I saw is encouraging.

Softball is back in action Wednesday at 3 p.m. against Lipscomb and will be streamed on the ACC Network Extra.




Lax Falls to Notre Dame


Tough task yesterday for the LAX Cards in South end against #19 Notre Dame. They were 4-0 coming into the match and had little trouble sending Scott Teeter's squad home with a 16-4 win.

At least this one was inside. 

The 8-0 start for the Irish led to a 10-1 halftime advantage. Louisville did add three more scores in the final 30 minutes while slowing down Notre Dame a bit, but maybe an early preview of how the ACC season is going to go for Teeter and team in their second year of the rebuilding process. 

Youth being served in the Cards goals. Sophomores Caroline Blalock, Alex McNicholas and Shayla Scanlan -- plus freshman Hannah Morris finding the net for Louisville. 

1-5 Louisville returns to the state of Indiana to face Butler (2-3) on Wednesday in Indy. Viewing listed on Facebook live. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

I alluded to it earlier, but Paulie, Jared, Daryl, and I were in the studio yesterday for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.  We had a good hour talking about basketball and softball....  OK, to be fair, we had a good 35 minutes of talking about basketball and softball as it took us a while to get through the Scheduling and Twitter segment.  There's just so much on the calendar this time of year, and we do tend to editorialize a bit through it.

Check it out, back on Facebook Live, at:

https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/311428539560787/

-- 

JMcA