Softball, Tennis, and Basketball Gamedays - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Gameday for Multiple Teams

An old Tommy Roe song has the lyric, "I'm so dizzy, my head is spinning."  The song is about meeting a woman and falling in love, but my brain this morning morphed it into "so busy, my head is spinning" while I was looking at the Cardinal's sport schedule today.

Softball

Let's start with softball.  They had two games yesterday and the score was 5-4.

The score was the only real common point between the games.  Otherwise everything else was different - different opponents, which isn't unheard of for Softball in tournaments and the like, and even different locations for the game, which is pretty rare.

The first game had UofL playing the role of the home team against Virginia, on Duke's field in Durham, NC.  The Cards needed nearly all of the seven innings of regulation to get this one done.  Virginia got on the board first in the top of the 3rd inning, and the Cards would answer in the bottom of the fourth.  Taylor Roby, who's name we'll be using a lot in this one, got a hit, then would step aside to let the much faster Jenna Servi do the base running.  Servi advanced on a sacrifice from Taryn Weddle and then Rebecca Chung's single.  An error let Servi scamper home.

Virginia would get a pair in the fifth, which the Cards immediately answered.  Charley Butler used her speed to get a hit with two outs.  Taylor Roby showed light tower power to right field to score the both of them.

The Hokies would get their final score in the 6th, but the Cards wanted to make it a bit more dramatic, so they waited until the bottom of the 7th, with one away already before making their move.  Carmyn Greenwood would get hit by a pitch to get on base.  Butler shows up again with a single to advance Greenwood.  They both would advance on a wild pitch setting them both up for scoring.  Now, remember who was next up in the order after Butler?  That's right, Roby again.  A walk-off single scored Greenwood and Butler for the first 5-4 tally of the day.

Oh yeah, and let's not forget, Roby also pitched 4.2 innings in this one.

The Cards next had to get on the bus and head over to Raleigh and NC State's field.  Again, UofL would cosplay as the home team, again the final score would be 5-4, and again it would be a bottom of the 7th affair to get it there.

A fast start for NC State with a pair in the first.  UofL was able to get one back.  Celene Funke, batting 2nd, known for her triples, and jersey number 33, didn't hit a triple, instead she ripped it over the right field fence.  Her first homer for the season.

No one else scored until the bottom of the fifth, but a highlight play in the 4th needs to be called out.  One out and NC State has the bases loaded, a line drive shot at freshman shortstop Sydney Bickel (oh hey, a new Sydney, we've been getting low on the all-Syd team) who quickly flipped the ball to Maddy Newman to pick off the runner trying to tag up on the base to end the inning.

Back to the scoring, UofL got a pair in the bottom of the 5th to take the 3-2 lead.  Newman with a single then advanced on the Bickel sacrifice.  Carmyn Greenwood's single would score Newman.  Have you been worried that you haven't yet heard us talk about Funke hitting a triple?  Well, things are back to normal.  She stepped to the plate and took it 270 degrees around scoring Greenwood in the process.

Not a greath top of the 6th for the Cards with the Wolfpack taking the lead again on back to back solo home runs.

Not giving up, UofL would equalize in the bottom half of the frame.  Charley Butler got on with a fielder's choice, used her speed to get to 3rd on Cassady Greenwood's single.  A Maddy Newman hit gave Butler the time to reach the plate.

The Cards would keep NC State off the board, and went into the bottom of the 7th tied.  Funke's speed would beat out the throw to 1st and advanced to 2nd on an error.  The Pack wanted nothing to do with Roby, perhaps having heard of what she did to Virginia earlier in the day, who was then lifted for Mia Forsythe to do the base running after they intentionally walked her. A Weddle sacrifice moved the two runners into scoring position.  Butler hit a strong shot to first, but it got ruled an error to take away another hit stat for her.  Funke would would reach home on the play to secure the win for the Cards.

Gabby Holloway spent most of the time in the circle for the Cards in this one, 5.2 innings, but Payton Hudson officially gets the win.

The Softball Cards are back in action again today.  This one is on NC State's field again, with Virginia being the opponent.  Who will be the home team?  Your guess is as good as mine.  We'll see at 11am when they get underway.  Available on ACC Network Extra streaming.

Tennis

Tennis will also getting a match underway at 11am today.  Hosting Boston College.  Do we go ahead and score the double's point for the Cards?  They haven't lost the double's point all season, so that's always a good way to start off.

No video listed for tennis, as is fairly common for them.  It would be nice if there was a setup where we could follow these matches a little better, but alas, Bass-Rudd isn't set up all that well for it.

Basketball

The last time we played Florida State in basketball, I wrote about how FSU had all the question marks around them.  They were coming off of a fairly lengthy Covid pause, have an interim head coach, had played very few games in the season to that point compared to many other teams, and we really just didn't know what the team was going to do.

Fewer question marks these days, but still a few.  8-6 overall, 7-6 in conference puts them 5th in conference this year.  Not bad.

The big name on the squad at the beginning of the season was Sammie Puisis, but honestly, her stats aren't all that impressive.  An average of 7.7 points a game isn't bad, but with three other players on the team scoring 13+ per game, I think we need to be turning our eyes to Morgan Jones and Bianca Jackson.  Point totals or that pair so far this season are 190 and 189 respectively.  My eyes also land on Jackson's 52 assists for the season, though compare that to Dana Evan's 90, while Evans, as we know, is scoring at a must faster clip, but then, it's almost not fair to compare much of anyone to Evans.

Kourtney Weber is the third scoring at 13 points per game, and is maybe the biggest outside threat, hitting three pointers at a .404 clip.  Puisis does have more three pointers made, 27 to Weber's 19, but does so less efficiently, shooting them at .321.

FSU's results are a mixed bag.  The early loss to Clemson still doesn't look great.  Loses to Georgia Tech and Wake Forest aren't terrible, but losing to Miami by 16 is a bit of an eye opener.  Of course, then they bounced back and beat Syracuse by 15.

Maybe we get some more question marks answer this afternoon?  The game will be on the ACC Network Extra at 2pm.  Nick Curran always has the great call on 790AM as well.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

A great CCRH show yesterday.  All five of the regulars on the call yesterday.  Daryl, Jared, Case, Paulie, and myself all had fun.

Softball, basketball, and a bit of tennis, were all in the discussion.  Good fun as always.  Check it out below.