New Cardinal All-Americans; Super Regional Baseball -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Track and Field Wrapping up Today

Yesterday saw three final events on the women's side at the National Championship meet and all three events saw Louisville Cardinals earn All-American Honors. In the hammer throw, Makenli Forrest finished 15th overall and was named to the second team. She'll get one more shot at a championship later this afternoon when the women's discus event happens. Also on the field side, Gabriela Leon finished 19th overall in the pole vault and was named an Honorable Mention All-American. Leon earlier broke the school record for the women's pole vault. In track, Ivine Chemutai finished 22nd in the 10,000m run and earned Honorable Mention as well.
Louisville performed quite well this season in Track and Field, and although they may not end up with any champions this year, they put a record number of athletes in a position to compete for a championship. As long as the growth and training continues, Louisville will soon be succeeding greatly in these events.

Cards Scuttle Pirates in Game 1

Around this time almost every year, this site sees a little bit of baseball talk. It's usually me that does it, but I am able to do so only because of the success of the baseball team that allows them to continue playing after all women's sports at UofL have finished. This season, the Cards have once again made it to the Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament. This is the Sweet 16 of baseball. The Cards are taking on East Carolina, which may not sound like much to you, but Sean Moth reminded us all yesterday, from 2007 to 2014, Louisville was the no-name team from a small conference. Louisville was also looking for a bit of longstanding revenge. ECU was the first opponent Louisville faced in Jim Patterson Stadium. The Cards lost that first game in the new building, and went on to be swept. It is the only time that Louisville has been swept in a three game series in Jim Patterson Stadium. The bottom line was to not take the Pirates too lightly.

ECU made sure we wouldn't do so when they sent out their First Team All-American pitcher, Jake Agnos, who threw 129 pitches on Sunday in ECU's regional. Agnos took on Louisville's Second Team All-American, Reid Detmers. Early, it looked as though the Cardinals would be the ones to blink first. In the first three innings, the Pirates put two runners on in multiple innings while Louisville lacked a baserunner through the first three with four strikeouts. Detmers was able to pitch out of trouble, but Agnos looked dialed in. Then the second time through the order happened. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Agnos started by getting a quick out from Lucas Dunn. Not to be sent back to the dugout again, Logan Wyatt decided Louisville needed their first hit, so he smacked a double to the wall. Tyler Fitzgerald thought that looked fun, so he did the same thing. Wyatt came in to score and Louisville led 1-0. Alex Binelas, the super freshman and hero of the regional, then took a four pitch walk and Jake Snider hit a soft single to load the bases. Needing to avoid the double play to do damage, Danny Oriente just snuck a ball between the first baseman and the bag that rolled all the way to the corner for a bases clearing double. Agnos got through the rest of the inning, but Louisville led 4-0. Detmers responded by putting the Pirates down in the fifth with just one walk and no damage.

Agnos's day was done, as ECU looked to save him for later in the weekend if they need him, but Louisville's offense hadn't quite done everything they wanted to yet. The Cards used six hits, two free passes (a walk and an HBP), and a fielder's choice to add five more runs in the fifth inning. Detmers finally gave up his first run on a solo shot by Spencer Brickhouse in the sixth inning, but no more damage was done. We'll give him a break as he had to sit for nearly 30 minutes, heading to the bullpen to stay warm once, during the Cardinals' fifth inning. 

Louisville continued to pour it on in the sixth with a Fitzgerald single, Binelas triple, a wild pitch, Britton single, Campbell double, and Davis groundout scoring three more runs for the Cards. Detmers put up another 1-2-3 inning in the seventh and Louisville added two more runs to what would be the final tally of 14-1. Schmeltz came on for Detmers in the top of the 8th and finished out the final two innings. 

Louisville now needs to win just one of the next two games to advance to their fifth College World Series. In addition to the Pirates, though, Louisville's opponent will also be the weather. After avoiding rain delays completely last weekend, the remainder of this weekend's slate may not be so lucky. The teams played through a brief shower yesterday afternoon, but have already decided to move today's game up to Noon, from the scheduled 3PM start. According to Kelly Dickey (realCardGame), the latest a Super Regional has ever finished was Tuesday. Let's see if the weather cooperates and we can wrap up before then. Ideally, the Cards will just end it with a win today.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

I'm finally back in the studio this week as various summer events have kept me away up to this point. We thought we might see a full house today, but the decision to shift the start time of today's Super Regional game pulled Jared away for fear of missing his media pass. At the very least, Paulie, Jeff, and I will bring you the latest news in Louisville women's athletics, as well as this week's Worldwide Quiz. Tune in to the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour at 11AM on WCHQ FM. WCHQ can be found at 100.9 FM, wchqfm.com, the WCHQ App, or on Facebook Live. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-