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Thursday, April 6, 2023

Softball Hosts Notre Dame -- NCA and NDA Championships - THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Softball Hosts Notre Dame


Paige Geraghty, Ally Alexander, Easton Lotus, Sam Booe, Alyssa Zabala

Due to the Easter holiday on Sunday, Louisville softball gets an early start to their weekend series. The Cards welcome Notre Dame to Don Dobina Field at Ulmer Stadium for a Thursday, Friday, Saturday series.

Most recently, Louisville is fresh off a 2-0 series sweep at Syracuse after the third game was cancelled due to freezing temperatures.

The Cards are 24-10 on the year and 9-2 in the ACC and hope to improve on those numbers against the Irish.

Hannah File, Sam Booe, Alyssa Zabala

Notre Dame enters the weekend with a 21-10-1 record. The Irish hold a 5-6-1 record in the ACC with the tie coming against Syracuse due to a drop dead time. In their most recent ACC series, Notre Dame dropped two games to Pitt, but turned around with a mercy rule victory against Ball State on Tuesday.

As a team, Notre Dame is hitting .325. Eight players are hitting above the .300 mark (minimum one at bat per game). Extra base hitting has been a strong suit for the Irish, who have 49 doubles and 42 home runs.

Carlli Kloss has been the top hitter with 40 hits on a .364 batting average. Her 12 doubles are also a team-high. Karina Gaskins and Joley Mitchell power the Irish with 27 and 26 rbis, respectively, with both players batting over .300.

In the circle, Notre Dame has run on a three-person rotation. Micaela Kastor powers the pitching staff with a 1.78 ERA. Payton Tidd has the most strikeouts with 78.

Today's game is set to start at 6:00 p.m. ET and will be aired on ACCNX.


NCA and NDA Championships



The Louisville cheer squads and Louisville Ladybirds are down in Daytona for the NCA (cheer) and NDA (dance) national championships. The Cards will have several groups compete.

Louisville cheer will be split into three main groups- All-Girl, Small Co-Ed, and Large Co-Ed- with each group competing in their respective category. There will also be a few four-person stunt groups competing in a separate event.

The Louisville Ladybirds have competed in two separate categories in the past, but will be competing in three this year- team, hip-hop, and jazz.


The all-time winningest programs in Louisville Athletics history are the cheer and dance programs, powered by dozens of women student-athletes.

Prelims for cheer start today and finals tomorrow while the dance prelims are split up between today and tomorrow and finals going on tomorrow and Saturday.

We wish all the groups the best of luck!

LESTER IN TRANSFER PORTAL




She never stepped on the court as a Louisville Cardinal, due to a leg injury, and now she has entered the transfer portal.  Imani Lester.
 
The 6'3" forward was the 57th ranked overall in the 2022 ESPN Hoop Gurlz. 

Wishing her the best, wherever she lands. 



Happy Thursday and Go Cards!
Jared

8 comments:

  1. So, we never really saw what Lester could do. I'm thinking it might have been one of those talks where she asked the coach or coaches her chances next year and they laid it on the line to her

    It'll be interesting to see where she ends up.

    Nick O

    ReplyDelete
  2. This transfer portal is whacked !
    The Recruit aren't staying!!
    UofL almost lost a whole recruiting Class!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow...it sure looked like Lester had the opportunity to get a lot of playing time next season.

    By the way - she was the 57th ranked recruit by ESPN. Harris was 35th, Walker was 38th and Brown was 92nd.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm a little concerned about having NO incoming freshman class, and all but one of last year's class leaving.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yeah, recruiting has definitely changed once the transfer portal evolved. I still believe you need a freshman class that you can develop over a 2-3 year time frame, but...the players these days have no patience in waiting and go if they aren't seeing immediate and extensive playing time as freshman . Welcome to a new world.

    paulie

    ReplyDelete
  6. Coaches are just as guilty. If they don't win, they're gone. Would you play an experienced junior from the portal or an untested freshman?

    ReplyDelete
  7. What happened to the developmental years maybe that year you don't go to the final fours or you don't go to the elite eights or the sweet 16 you just develop the team.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Development year.

      That's the rallying affirmation comment of the fans of programs like Clemson, Wake Forest...even Kentucky..."it was just a development year, we'll be a much more stronger, deep, experienced team next year" That usually means you hope to climb from 14-17 to 17-14.

      Most of the elite programs have five, proven, veteran scorers. Does Louisville still have five players on their roster? Who scores after Van Lith, Cochran, maybe Curry, maybe Mobley, maybe Harris? A lot of question marks here. The days of Harry Perretta and Villanova are over. Long term coaches are a dying breed.

      Delete

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