Softball 1-1 After Day One -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Opens Season With Split

The Cards took to the sunny climes of Florida for the beginning of the softball season, as they do annually, and began their 2026 campaign with a victory. The joy of a 7-4 win over Stony Brook was a bit short lived, though, as they fell at the hands of the hosting FIU Panthers 5-7 in the later game. Louisville will get a chance for payback against FIU tomorrow morning, but they have a pair of games today first. The Cards take on Corpus Christi at 11:30 this morning and will face Lehigh this evening at 4:30. 

In the first game, Louisville fell behind in the second inning 1-0, but turned their fortunes around with a four-run third. They tacked on a single run in the fifth and their final two in the sixth before needing to hold on to their lead against a three-run seventh inning for Stony Brook. Brooke Gray got the start in game one and pitched four innings of one-run ball. She gave up three hits and hit one batter but tallied three strikeouts and no walks. Two of the three hits came in the second inning to set up the sacrifice fly that scored her only earned run, but it was a decent start for the junior. 

Offensively in game one, Louisville was led by Madison Pickens, who has moved into the third spot in the lineup, as she had two triples. One resulted in an RBI and a little-league home run as she scored on a throwing error by the left fielder, and the other saw her batted in for the Cards' fifth run of the game. Taylor Monroe also had a pair of hits, and Riley Janda had Louisville's only home run. Small ball and speed will likely reign again for Louisville, as the Cards had three stolen bases (Easton Lotus, Chelsea Mack, Bri Despines). 

In game two, the Cards jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first, but FIU responded immediately to take the lead by the end of the inning. The Cards got back-to-back solo homers from Pickens and Despines in the inning, but Alyssa Zabala had a nightmare start in her season opener. Zabala gave up four straight hits and an error put a fifth straight batter on base before Zabala was replaced by Anna Wise. Alyssa will surely be back to her normal form sooner rather than later, but she's sitting on the dreaded "infinity" ERA at the moment. 

Anna Wise settled in and got out of the inning with some defensive help, but Louisville trailed 3-2. The sophomore transfer from Ohio University pitched well as the quasi starter after that, going five innings before she ran into trouble. In the meantime, Louisville scored in the fifth on a Camryn Lookadoo double to tie the game. Things unraveled a bit for Wise in the sixth inning, but it was the defense that ultimately let this one slip away. Wise opened the inning with a popup, but a pair of singles followed. A fly out left runners on first and second with two outs. 

Easy enough, you might think, but not quite. A ground ball back to the pitcher was unable to be converted to the final out, and the bases were loaded. It was a tough call for Holly Aprile to put a freshman in a tie game with the bases loaded, but she trusted her gut. It didn't quite work out. Jayden Gohs took over in the circle and walked in the go-ahead run. Unfortunately, the defense made a bad situation worse when Taylor Monroe sailed a throw from short that could have ended the inning and instead scored a pair of unearned runs. A double added one more unearned run and the Cards trailed 7-3 with one more trip to the plate. 

To their credit, the Cards put up a valiant effort in the seventh. Katie Thatcher walked to open the inning, and Lookadoo singled to try to start a rally. FIU made a pitching change, which looked to be the right call as Easton Lotus struck out, but Chelsea Mack laid down a bunt that scored two runs on an errant throw. Mack advanced all the way to third and with a runner in scoring position, one out, and the heart of the order due up, Louisville wasn't quite out of it yet. Their hopes were dashed in fairly short order, though, as Pickens and Despines both lined out to end the game. 

There's a long season ahead, and Louisville gets back into it today. There's plenty of good and bad to take from the opening day of games, so we'll just see what the Cards do with the rest of their weekend. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case