Things appear to be running on all cylinders for Louisville softball, who won their eighth straight game following a 15-0 five-inning blowout over Western Illinois.
Louisville relied on home runs by Ally Alexander, Korbe Otis, and Carmyn Greenwood to power the offense, which scored six runs in the first and fourth innings and three runs in the second inning. Greenwood's home run was her second grand slam of the year. Two grand slams in one season is incredible! Otis' dinger was her third of her career while Alexander has hit a home run in two straight games to get to two in her career.
Offensively, Louisville was running- theoretically and literally- all over Ulmer Stadium. The Cards earned seven walks and stole six bases. A trio of errors by the Leathernecks allowed the Cards to be even more aggressive on the base path.
Taylor Roby got the start in the circle and improved to 6-3 on the year. Roby struck out seven over those three innings, falling three strike outs shy of tying her career high. Chardonnay Harris came in for the final two innings and struck out three while allowing one hit.
With a pair of injuries to one of the early season lineups, Holly Aprile seems to have settled on her starting 10. Softball includes a designated player in the starting lineup so there's officially 10 players in the starting lineup. That lineup includes four freshmen, a big positive for future seasons.
Hannah File suffered a minor injury while in Arkansas. Although presumed cleared to play, she sat out the last couple of games as a precaution to get ready for conference play. She should be back within a week or two.
Easton Lotus suffered an apparent leg injury in the win against Indiana and appears to be out for a lengthy period.
Louisville wraps up their home-stand with their ACC opener against Georgia Tech this weekend. Friday's game will start the same time as Louisville women's basketball in the NCAA Tournament so we will not be able to provide any live coverage or photos of softball that game. Saturday's game will be at 4:00, which we will be present for. Sunday's NCAA Tournament game time has not yet been announced so we don't know if we will be present for their noon first pitch yet.
WBB NCAA Tournament and the Cardinal Couple NCAA Tournament Pick Em
We are almost to the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The first two play-in games tipped off last night.
Howard rallied in the fourth quarter to take down Incarnate Word, 55-51. Their reward is to take on South Carolina on Friday.
The second of the two games saw Dayton and DePaul squaring up. The Flyers cruised to a 88-57 win.
Don't forget to get your bracket in soon. With the first round games beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, you must have your bracket submitted by 11:00 a.m. ET this Friday.
The tiebreaker is the final score of the championship game. For example, if Louisville defeats Kentucky in the championship, 60-50, then the final total score would be 110.
So far, as of 11:00 p.m. yesterday, we have received 16 entries. The brackets I have noted are: Kenny Schneider, Blue Lou, Curtis Franklin, Arthur, Nick O, Louavulfan35 (Jules), Kenneth Stark Sr, Joe Hill, Cardinal Couple Chimps, David Watson, Paul Sykes, Sonya Sykes, Bea, Vivian McAdams, Doug Anderson, and Jason Wyrick. If you have already submitted one and your name isn't listed, please let us know so we can get that corrected.
Just for a little clarification on the play-in games: we chose not to include those four games in the brackets due to the fact they started so early in the week and would not give people a fair chance to review their picks. With play-in games starting last night, we would have had to make the cut off yesterday afternoon instead of tomorrow morning. If you did pick a play-in game team advancing further in the tournament such as the Second Round or Sweet Sixteen and have it listed as "Dayton/DePaul", we will count either as the correct answer.
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Jason Wyrick's bracket
South Carolina, South Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa State, Creighton, Iowa
Louisville, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, BYU, Michigan, Ole Miss, Baylor
Stanford, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Ohio State, LSU, Utah, Texas
NC State, Washington State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Indiana, UCF, UConn
NC State, Washington State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Indiana, UCF, UConn
South Carolina, Arizona, Iowa State, Iowa
Louisville, Oregon, Michigan, Baylor
Stanford, Maryland, LSU, Texas
NC State, Notre Dame, Kentucky, UConn
South Carolina, Iowa State, Louisville, Baylor
Stanford, Texas, NC State, UConn
South Carolina, Louisville, Stanford, UConn
Louisville, UConn
Louisville - 121
I will have my bracket posted in the comments section later tonight.
THURSDAY PRESSERS -- PLAYERS AND WALZ
Audio only on both:
Happy Thursday and Go Cards!
Jared
Also got emails from Perry Sosh and Case early this morning.
ReplyDeleteAt Paulie's request, my picks below:
DeleteSC, Miami, UNC, Arizona, DePaul, ISU, Creighton, Iowa, Louisville, Gonzaga, Belmont, Tennessee, BYU, Michigan, South Dakota, Baylor, Stanford, GT, VT, Maryland, OSU, LSU, Arkansas, Texas, NCST, Wazzu, ND, Oklahoma, UK, Indiana, UCF, UCONN
SC, UNC, DePaul, Iowa, Louisville, Tennessee, BYU, Baylor, Stanford, VT, OSU, Arkansas, NCST, Oklahoma, UK, UCONN
SC, Iowa, Louisville, Baylor, Stanford, OSU, NCST, UCONN
Iowa, Louisville, Stanford, UCONN
Iowa, Stanford
Stanford - 146
Hi, I am Benny and I use to work with Curtis and a big WBB fan (especially IU !) He told me about your contest, so, I'd like to enter.
ReplyDeleteBENNY J PICKS
SC, USF, SF AUSTIN, ARIZ, DAYTON, IOWA ST, CREIGHTON, IOWA, LOUISVILLE, GONZAGA, ORE, TENN, BYU, MICHNFORD, SO DAK, BAYLOR, STANFORD, GT, VT, MD, OSU, LSU, ARK, TX, NC STATE, K STATE, ND, OKLA, PRINCETON, IU, UCF, UCONN
SC, ARIZ, IOWA ST, IOWA, LOU, TENN, BYU, SO DAK, STANFORD, MD, OSU, TX, NCST, ND, IU, UCONN
SC, IOWA ST, TENN, BYU, MD, TX, NCST, IU
SC, BYU, MD, IU
SC, IU
IU
POINTS 138
Thanks for doing this.
Benny J.
Benny a good guy, we worked together for years and I'm probably going to hire him when my new job tells me I can start hiring.
DeleteCurtis
Surprising to me that Dayton handled DePaul so easily in their First Four play in game. Thought Doug Bruno's team was an offense powerhouse, so is the Dayton defense all that?
ReplyDeleteI was one of the ones who will benefit for the allowance of the Dayton/DePaul entry in the bracket contest They were the only play in pick I had advancing and, honestly, if I had known the judgment decision before I did my bracket, I probably would have picked DePaul.
Pissed that I have to go to the KFC YUM to pick up my tickets though. Leave it to the NCAA to screw the process up...
Nick O
I am hearing from other readers who aren't happy about the ticketing distribution.
DeleteHeaded down to the KFC YUM Center in a few to pick up media passes and attend UofL presser with players and Coach Walz.
paulie
That’s the dumbest thing in the world. Why the NCAA won’t send you tickets through email or Ticketmaster or another platform in advance makes no sense to me. The lines to pick up tickets in person will be insane.
Deletethey are stupid for havng the payne announcement down there on a ncaa game day what moron came up with that idea.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! The women's team has earned and is deserving of the city's focus this weekend. So disappointed in the decision to announce the morning of their opening game.
DeleteWALZ and Players Thursday comments now up and running in main article.
ReplyDeletepaulie
Katy's bracket
ReplyDeleteSouth Carolina, Miami, North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa State, Colorado, Iowa
Louisville, Gonzaga, Oregon, Tennessee, BYU, Michigan, Ole Miss, Baylor
Stanford, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Ohio State, LSU, Utah, Texas
NC State, Kansas State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, UConn
South Carolina, Arizona, Iowa State, Iowa, Louisville, Oregon, Michigan, Baylor
Stanford, Virginia Tech, LSU, Texas, NC State, Oklahoma, Indiana, UConn
South Carolina, Iowa, Louisville, Baylor, Stanford, Texas, NC State, UConn
South Carolina, Louisville, Stanford, NC State
South Carolina, NC State
South Carolina - 146
Jared's bracket
ReplyDeleteSouth Carolina, Miami, North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa State, Colorado, Iowa
Louisville, Gonzaga, Oregon, Tennessee, BYU, Michigan, South Dakota, Baylor
Stanford, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Ohio State, LSU, Arkansas, Texas
NC State, Washington State, Notre Dame, IUPUI, Princeton, Indiana, UCF, UConn
South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa State, Iowa, Louisville, Tennessee, Michigan, Baylor
Stanford, Virginia Tech, LSU, Texas, NC State, Notre Dame, Indiana, UConn
South Carolina, Iowa, Louisville, Baylor, Stanford, LSU, NC State, UConn
South Carolina, Louisville, Stanford, UConn
South Carolina, Stanford
South Carolina - 120
FSU was an embarrassment to the ACC last night in their play in game. Morgan Jones was nowhere near as good as she was against the Cards.
ReplyDeleteNick O