A Tough Day on Floyd Street - Sunday Cardinal Couple

(photos from Jared Anderson)

Softball Drops a Game to Notre Dame

At a season record of 10-11 going into yesterday's game, including Friday's loss to the Cards, Notre Dame's record, compared to Louisville's 15-6, would make you think that the Cards should be able to be the Irish without a huge degree of difficulty. Honestly, you're probably right, Louisville should be able to beat Notre Dame fairly reliably, but in softball, it's not uncommon for what is clearly an inferior team to step up and win a game as ND did yesterday, 3-2.  This is one of the reasons that series against tea

Easton Lotus rounds second base

ms are popular in the diamond sports, winning one game can be a fluke occurrence, winning a three game series is a bit more difficult.

Now, please don't take this as disrespect to the Notre Dame team, they're good...not great, but good.  And they played well yesterday, keeping the Cards offense at bay, and they deserved the win they got and have every right to celebrate it.  The Cards, however, will be looking to get back on the win side today, and win the series with the game at noon.

Much like Friday, the Cards started with Alyssa Zabala in the circle, and brought Sam Booe in for relief, though Zabala did go for four and two thirds innings, compared to Friday's shorter appearance. Will today see a change up in the circle?  Perhaps, as it can be useful to throw a different pitcher at a team after they've seen one (or two) for a while, like two games.  However, Zabala and Booe do make a pretty darn good one-two punch, so I also wouldn't be shocked to see round three of the pair.

Louisville got all of their scoring done before Notre Dame got any of their offense unlimbered.  The Cards started out in the first inning with the lead-off batter, Easton Lotus getting a single.  A Chelsea Mack bunt on the second pitch of the at-bat moved her forward before she got a chance to steal. A big Char Lorenz double out to right field scored Lotus.

Char Lorenz makes another out in
left field

Fast forward to the fourth inning and the score is still 1-0. Two big contacts got the second, and final, score for the Cards. Bri Despines smacked a double out to left field, and scored on a Maddi Grant single to right.

Unfortunately, that would be it for Louisville, Notre Dame would score a run in each of the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings to get the 3-2 win.

The eye test, in addition to the season records, would suggest that Louisville should've won this game.  They play cleaner and with fewer mistakes on defense.  They have incredible base running, and do tend to get runners on base, but yesterday, Notre Dame just did the specific right things to get the win.  Maybe they got used to Zabala and Booe's pitching just enough to get just enough offense going (including a home run) to get across the line.  Louisville offense definitely wasn't able to get in gear, maybe Notre Dame's pitcher yesterday (Kami Kamzik) just had Louisville's number from in the circle?  Certainly the offensive effort by the Cards was significantly blunted, which can frequently result from good pitching.

In any case, Louisville will get the chance to win the rubber match today, starting at noon, and as always, you can catch the stream on the ACC Network Extra.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse, now getting into the meat of the ACC season, also went down to defeat yesterday at the hands of Virginia Tech, 16-7.  The Hokies find themselves in the upper part of the ACC standings at 2-1 in conference, certainly nothing to sneeze at in this tough conference.

J Pleck was in goal for the Cards for the duration of this one, collecting nine saves, which is even with the VT goalie, but with a 37-25 shot advantage, 25-16 for shots on goal, you either need a superhuman goalkeeper, more defense, which is a hard ask for an already pretty good defending Louisville team, or just generate more offense to counteract.

Negai Nakazawa on the give and go

Louisville did replace the first zero on the scoreboard about five minutes into the first quarter thanks to Lauren Figas, assisted by Negai Nakazawa. VT would put three in the Cards' net before the quarter was out, however.

VT would continue that run with a pair of goals in the opening five minutes of the second quarter, stretching the lead to 5-1.  Reese Whiteman stopped the slide about halfway through the quarter, VT would answer, and then Negai Nakazawa found the goal with about two minutes in the half left. Figas would narrow the gap even further with 35 seconds showing on the scoreboard, making the halftime score 6-4.

Lauren Figas curls looking for a score

Nakazawa got the lead down to just one goal in the opening minute of the third quarter, but ultimately the quarter would be a draw. VT answer Negai, and Rian Adkins got it back to just a one goal lead, again as 6:30 showed on the clock.  40 seconds later, Figas tied the game at 7-7.  VT would score the final two scores of the third quarter to bring the lead back to two at 9-7.

Alas, VT would close out the game extending that run out to 9-0. Yes, that's correct, the Cards did not score at all in the fourth quarter, as VT found the goal seven times. That's not a pleasant ending to a game...well, I guess it is if you're a VT fan.

The Cards get a full week to lick their wounds, and hopefully let them heal, because I fear some more are on the way as the Cards travel to New England to play undefeated Boston College on their home turf.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

All five of the CC crew made the CCRHP recording call yesterday, although Jared did need to make an early exit in order to make it downtown (at least there was some Cardinal joy and excitement down there, even if it wasn't for women's sports) for the men's basketball game and senior day festivities.

As you would expect, basketball, softball, and lacrosse were on the agenda with no inkling of the somber day that was ahead of us with on Floyd Street.

Check it out:

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Softball-Wins-WBB-Ends-ACC-Tourney-Run-e2vsr08