Game Day -- Rowing in ACC Championships -- The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour -- Friday Cardinal Couole

NCAA Tournament begins for Louisville Softball 

We've been building up to it most of the week, but game day is here for Louisville Softball. The Cards begin their NCAA Tournament run in the Land of Lincoln. They'll square off against Southern Illinois in the Evanston Regional at 1:00 p.m., ET.

UofL comes into the game at 33-21 and is one of five ACC programs represented in the 64-team field. The Cards have resume-building wins against FSU, Kentucky, Michigan and Virginia Tech. 

S.I.U. finished runner-up in the regular season behind Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference and exited their conference tournament against Northern Iowa 2-0. Known as the Salukis, they posted a 33-13 record with 17 of those wins in conference play. They last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2017. They are the third seed in the four team regional, one of the last four teams to make the tournament. 

The winner of this one will face the winner of Northwestern and Detroit Mercy. The loser, consequently, faces the loser of the Wildcats vs. Titans game. 

Northwestern finished second in the Big 10 regular season and lost in the semifinals of their conference tournament. The Wildcats compiled a 43-10 record and only had two conference schedule losses. Northwestern met Louisville three times, at two different early season venues, and took all three games against the Cards...but only by a combined total of four runs. 

Detroit Mercy is the new kid on the block, making their first NCAA Tournament appearance.  The Titans took the Horizon League Tournament Championship to get the automatic qualifier, Going 31-26 on the season, they are in their 11th. season of softball and have never faced Louisville. 

The regionals are a double-elimination format. Thankfully, for the Cards, there is no "one-and-done" scenario. UofL hit a speed bump late in the season but have had a week off to prepare and get in some valuable practices. I suspect the Cards are eventually going to have to face Northwestern in this regional and defeat them to advance to the Super Regional. Holly Aprile tells us that Louisville has improved a lot since the early part of the season and they'll need to find a way to gather two wins in Evanston to get to the next step. 

This promo video below should help to get you fired up: 

CARDS PROMO VIDEO

The game will be on ESPN +. Here's a link to the 1 p.m. broadcast below: 

LOUISVILLE VS SOUTHERN ILLINOIS SOFTBALL



ROWING BEGINS ACC CHAMPIONSHIPS


Louisville Rowing is in Clemson, SC at Lake Hartwell for the ACC Championships. 

Preliminary events begin today at 5:30 p.m. with qualifying events. You can catch the action on the ACC Network Extra. 

Nine ACC teams will compete in the Championships, the goal is to try and upset a perennially strong Virginia crew that has become a dominant force in the events. 

Louisville finished 5th in the regular season and will look to better that standing in the conference tournament. 



THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 

Paulie, Jeff and myself will take the microphones from 11 a.m. until noon tomorrow on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on WCHQ 100.9 FM. We'll (fingers crossed) talk about softball's win today, rowing, WNBA news and it's rumored that Paulie has one of those infamous Worldwide Cardinal Couple quizzes prepared for Jeff and I. Please join us in taking the quiz and following plus commenting on Facebook Live. Listen live at the station's website as well....www.wchqfm.com

Case is off this week and next week watching vehicles turn left in Indy and Daryl is trying to avoid crashing as well, but her venue is at a concert in Columbus. 

It all emanates from the magnificent, majestic media mansion on Mellwood, join us won't you? Unfortunately, we will not be signing autographs. Contractual rules, you know. 

www.wchqfm.com


Happy Friday!

Jared