WOLFPACK JUMPS ON BIRDS EARLY
Brooke Gray has been a very good pitcher for UofL Softball this season. Yesterday's game, though, probably won't be one she'll go back to fondly in her memory banks. The NC State diamond dwellers (27-24, 7-15) jumped on Gray and the Cards for seven runs in the first two innings and held on to take a 10-6 win over Louisville (42-11, 17-6) to even up the series at one game each.
NCST (or NCSU...since the school really hates seeing NCST used...they say they are North Carolina State University...so they say use NCSU since that is the appropriate shortening of the name. An old-timer like me has called them NCST since the days of Deb Antonelli prowling the hardwood and Jim Valvano winning the NCAA Championship...so , old habits are hard to break. Hank Williams, Jr sang about old habits in his 1980 smash hit..Old Habits. You can hear it below:
The song has a lot of personal meaning to me, since it came around at a time I was going through a break up with what was probably the first true love of my life. Anyway..I digress, let's get back to the game..if we have to...
Louisville remained scoreless until the top of the fourth inning. They sandwiched a few singles around a Camry Lookadoo four bagger to make it 7-4. Taylor Monroe homered in the inning as well
The Pack (I like that nickname for them) would see the Cards add two runs to their total in the top of the sixth...when two on base scored on an NCSU wild pitch. That made it 7-6 and the Cards were rallying...but the Raleigh school effectively shut the door when they got a three run homer out of Kendall Simmons in the bottom of the sixth to deep left to make it 10-6. And, that concluded the scoring.
They'll finish the series today at 1 p.m. ACCNX will show the event.
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So...how did your Derby Day turn out? I watched our local coverage here in Louisville and the network hoopla while also betting on twinspires.com. WAVE gets better each year with their production, but the network is losing Donna Barton Brothers after this year and that is a shame. She rode, she knows the jockeys, trainers, owners and the in's and out's of Churchill Downs...as well as many other tracks. I remember her from when she was riding 30-1 long shot up at the old Latonia (now Turfway) Race Track. Gonna be a tough act to replace. On the betting angles, yeah, I know...RunHappy ran happy for about a mile and then folded like a cheap suit. Glad Jose Ortiz finally got a Derby win...beating his brother Irad...when he brought Golden Tempo from last to first with a furious stretch drive, passing Renegade and winning the Run For The Roses. Nice to see Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi doing the National Anthem, too. I first got turned on to Trucks (the son of Allman Brothers legend Butch Trucks) when he was playing with Warren Haynes...two great guitarists.
23-1 odds. Woulda been nice...should have handicapped twice, right? Still , I cleaned up on the early card and final two races to end up about $150 ahead on the day. That'll come in handy to lose on the Preakness and Belmont...A year where I stayed away from Derby parties, Churchill Downs or any off-track betting and played the races through TwinSpires.com. It was relaxing and think it'll be the way to go from now on.
paulie
Paulie, I also missed on the Derby but hit the Oaks exacta pretty hard and had the tri in the turf race preceding the Derby. So I ended up with a decent profit for the two days.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on TwinSpires - it's the only way that I bet now. That's after going to various tracks on a pretty regular basis for almost 50 years.