Overlap Overload - Sunday Cardinal Couple

With Spring sports fully kicked-off, the Sunday article conundrum raises it's head...recaps first or upcoming schedule first?  Let's go with recaps.

Softball in Warmer Climes

Georgetown Round Two

Softball continues their weekend in the Fort Myers area, taking advantage of the warmer weather of the south as is typical for their early season.  After two games Friday that were good wins, but maybe didn't demonstrate as much offense as Case would have liked, they did get the bats going a bit more yesterday.  The defense continued to shine, keeping any runners from opposing teams from crossing the plate for the whole day.

The first game of the day for the Cards didn't get started until evening (spare a thought for the staff people working these long days of Softball in the opening weekends, they can be at it from sunup until well past sundown pulling off these events) with a second game against Georgetown.  Easton Lotus led off the game with a single, followed by a pair of walks to Daisy Hess and Kiley Goff to load up the bases.  Riley Frizell sacrificed to advance all of the runners getting the first score on the board.  The Hoyas would get another out before Paige Geraghty made contact for a double, scoring the other two runners, making the total in the first inning 3-0.

Georgetown gifted a pair of walks to start off the 3rd inning, to Goff and Frizell, Bailee Richardson, joining us from Georgia State as a graduate student singled, advancing Frizell to 3rd and scoring Goff.  A couple of batters later, Maddi Grant flew one out to right field, but Frizell was able to tag at 3rd and score before the throw could get there.  At the end of three, the score was 5-0.

With a new pitcher in the circle for Georgetown, Lotus took advantage of a fielding error to reach, but was out the next play when Daisy Hess hit into a fielder's choice.  Hess then took advantage of the empty base paths ahead of her to steal second, to the surprise of no one who has seen Hess on the basepaths before.  Hess finished the trip around from 2nd, again turning on the jets, after a fielding error in center field, making the score 6-0 after four innings.

The next inning, Paige Geraghty led off and gave the Hoya pitcher fits with a 10-pitch at bat that culminated in a free pass to first base.  Grant came up and smacked a double on the 3rd pitch, and Geraghty, possessing her own set of high speed jets, made it around from first to reach the final score of the game, 7-0.

Freshman Lindsey Mullen gets the win with four innings pitched, with Sam Booe finishing off the final three.  Both, of course, allowed no runs, and both issued a single walk, and three strikeouts.

FGCU

But the Cards weren't done for the night.  The Cards would get their first shot at their host, FGCU, later in the evening, an 8:30pm start time.

Sophomore Alyssa Zabala went wire-to-wire in the circle for this one, again allowing no runs, issuing only a pair of walks, getting an impressive eight strickouts.

The Cards, again, got started with the scoring early.  It wasn't the lead off batter as Easton Lotus flew out to left field, but Daisy Hess, batting second, hit the same direction, but with a bit more oomph putting the yellow orb outside the fence for a touch-em-all.  Maybe not the "string together offense" that we sometimes talk about, but hey, a home run will always do just fine.  Frizell got a free pass, and was followed up by Richardson also putting one beyond the fence in left field.  Another 3-0 first inning for the Cards.

Nothing much interesting on the scoreboard until the 6th with a bit of a two out rally.  Richardson drew a walk and scored on the next at bat thanks to a Geraghty double.  Geraghty may not be the all out strongest hitter, but she's so dang fast that if she gets a ball in play, she's probably going to make it to second.  That also means that she can quickly take advantage of the mistakes of opponents, like a passed ball on which she advanced to third.  Vanessa Miller, also quite fleet of foot, drew a walk, but like so many of these quickie Cardinals, promptly stole second.  The catcher, maybe a little unwisely, made the throw to second, but was off the mark.  That gave Geraghty the brief opening she needed to zip home from third.  Miller also took advantage of the miscue to take third.  While Ally Alexander was at bat, another passed ball and Miller made the quick run to home as well.  With all of that great baserunning, the final score of 6-0 was reached.

The Cards take the field against today at 12:30pm, again taking on the host FGCU.  Streaming is available on ESPN+ if you have the added subscription.

Tennis

Also on the road, Tennis matched up against Furman yesterday, coming away with the 5-2 win.  The Cards won the double's point with a pair of 6-2 wins.  The first by Jamilah Snells and Lillian Mould, and the second by Allie Gretkowski and Lika Peresypkina.  They then proceeded to pick up four of the six single's points for the overall win.  Wins went to Gretkowski, Peresypkina, Germany Davis (who's from Georgia, not Germany, just for the record), and Snells.

The Cards return home for a cross-town match against Bellarmine at the Bass-Rudd on Friday.

On Tap Today

Three events to keep you occupied this afternoon before the arrival of the Superb Owl this evening.

WBB

The next test in this end-of-season grind for the the Cards WBB squad is a visit to Syracuse.

Felisha Leggete-Jack has put together a solid performing team in the Orange.  19-4 on the season, 9-3 in the touch ACC conference, they're currently holding the 23rd spot down in both the AP and coach's polls.

It's been ages since the Cards last met up with the Orange...a whopping ten days ago.  The canvas hasn't changed that much.  Dyaisha Fair is still the main Syracuse threat from anywhere in the gym.  Will Hack-a-Shaq be part of the Card strategy today?  The Cuse shot less than 50% from the charity strip a week and a half ago, though they are over 72% on the season...which is, of course, enough to earn them at least a lower-case "f" for the season in their Fred report.

TV coverage for the game is on The CW network, yes you read that right.  That's WBKI broadcast channel 58 in the Louisville area, and should be included as a local channel on any of the significant cable-style services.  Also an early tip for the game, with a noon start.

Lacrosse

Teeter's team got to hang out in the state of Colorado after their game against Denver on Friday.

They'll be taking on Colorado in the Buff's season opener.  That, of course, means there's not much to scout, here.  CU did go 11-8 on the season last year, losing to the Cards 12-5 here on Floyd St.

They have a "Colorado Live Stream" listed on their site, but links through to pac-12.com: http://pac-12.com/live/cubuffs.  It's listed as a noon start on Colorado's site, and 2pm on UofL's schedule, so all the math checks out.

Louisville will, of course, be looking to get their first win recorded after the loss to Denver on Friday.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

A fearsome foursome for the CCRHP yesterday as Case, Daryl, Jared, and Paulie convened to discuss the past couple of WBB games as well as Lacrosse and Softball action.  It's a busy, and seriously fun, time of year.  I was absent as I was on my way back from a road-trip to Atlanta to watch Tori Stringer (Dilfer) and Claire Chaussee face off across the net from each other as Stringer Atlanta Vibe lost to Chaussee's Grand Rapids Rise.

I have not, yet, had a chance to listen to this episode of the podcast, but I have every confidence that the discussion was great and fun, even in my absence...maybe even more so because of my absence.

Check it out at:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/WBB-Plays-Big-Games-and-Spring-Sports-Underway-e2fk7ei 

JMCA