Lacrosse in ACC Tourney today -- Softball drops a double -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

Softball Drops Two

As a website dedicated to bringing you joy and excitement, let me tell you about this programming library that I'm writing in the Python programming language...

(EDITOR NOTE: JEFF DOES NOT KEEP PYHTON'S OR SPEAK TO THEM...JUST SOME EGGHEAD STUFF  REFERENCE THAT WE ARE GUESSING IS PART OF HIS WORK...)  

Oh, right, we're specifically about UofL Women's Sports.  Unfortunately, joy and excitement in the women's sports programs are a little hard to find right now.

Softball was in action yesterday, but the results definitely didn't spark joy.  After a win Friday over North Carolina, with only the bare minimum offense (a pair of home runs) to get the job done, the lack of offense hurt yesterday.

(ravishing Riley !) 

The first game of the day saw UNC get out to an early lead with three runs in 1st inning.  They tacked on another in the 3rd.  The Cards sensing the need to do something, well, another home run by Riley Frizell.  I mean, it was a good weekend for her in the batter's box, but without more offense around her...it's not good.  The Tarheels then finished it off in the bottom of the 6th with five runs, walking it off with the run-rule win, 9-1.

There was more offense in the second game, but still not the small ball play that Holly Aprile is looking for.  Maddi Grant started it off in the 2nd inning with a long ball shot over the fence in right field.

The Cards would add on five more in the 5th, and about the only hint of small ball play that Aprile would see the whole weekend.  Chelsea Mack reached on a bunt, Frizell drew a want, and was replaced on the base paths by the quicker "Pickle" Winkler.  It wouldn't really matter, however, as Vanessa Miller homered to right, scoring the trio.  UofL would tack on two more, both homers again, with Bailee Richardson and Katie Thatcher being the bombers.

Don't get me wrong, I love seeing some light tower power, but for consistent success, teams do really need to be able to play the small ball game.  And, in fact, in this one, with the score 6-0 UofL after five innings, UNC would score seven unanswered in the 6th and 7th innings, again with the walk-off.  And I hate to say it, but the Cards looked more like the Bad News Bears out in the field during that 7th inning.  UNC played well, no disrespect to them, but UofL largely fumbled it away.  HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOU RECALL THE SOFTBALL CARDS GETTING BEAT WITH A SEVEN RUN FINAL TWO INNINGS FROM THE FOE?  I'll wait for your answer .

Softball returns home for a mid-Derby Festival series with Clemson starting Friday at 6pm.

Lacrosse

Let's look for some joy and excitement from Lacrosse, they're in Blacksburg to play Virginia Tech, but this isn't just any old home game for the Hokies.  This is the first round of the ACC Tournament.  Louisville is the 9th seed in the tournament, Virginia Tech is the 8th.

In the earlier matchup between these two teams, Louisville played VT competitively for three quarters of the game.  The Cards won the 1st quarter 4-2, VT came back to tie it at half-time 5-5.  It was the 3rd quarter that sunk the Cards, VT won it 6-2, though the Cards didn't give up, they did tie the 4th quarter, but of course that's not enough when you dug a 4 goal deficit in the 3rd.  VT won 14-10.

The Cards will be looking for revenge, and to advance to the main portion of the tournament at the American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, NC.  If they beat VT, they will get the "honor" of meeting Syracuse on the 24th.

All games in the ACC Women's Lacrosse tournament will be on the ACC Network linear channel, but of course you can also stream them through the ACC Network Extra streaming setup.

The game today will get underway at noon.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(jeff and Jared escort Paulie to the broadcast venue) 

Jared, Paulie, and myself gathered to discuss the latest in UofL women's sports on the CCRHP.  Softball and Lacrosse are active, so of course much of the discussion centered on those two sports, but we did get some exciting recruiting and transfer portal news for WBB this week, so we did cover that territory as well.

Unfortunately, we did lose the last couple of minutes as my streaming software crashed for some unknown reason.  Fortunately, it waiting until very near the end to do so, so check out the show below, and apologies for the abrupt ending.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Lacrosse-and-Softball-Struggle-e2im0b6

 

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JMcA