Five softball Cards named to CSC Academic All-District -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

GOFF, BOOE, HESS, RICHARDSON AND ZABALA EARN DISTRICT HONORS

FIVE UOFL SOFTBALL players have been named to the College Sport Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District team. Pitchers Sam Booe and Alyssa Zabala, infielders Daisy Hess and Bailee Richardson and catcher Kiley Goff have earned the honor. 

In order to earn the honor, you must be a starter or important reserve and carry at least a 3.5 cumulative grade point average on a 4.0 scale.  Goff is a transfer to the Cards from Maryland, Hess and Richardson transfers-in from Georgia State.  Zabala arrived as a freshman to campus and so did Booe ,a junior.  Both were recruited and signed by the Cards out of high school.  

Booe

Booe was also named to the CSC academic honor last year and had also been named to the ACC Academic Honor Roll twice. 

Goff

Goff stepped in and took over catching duties when Sarah Gordon transfered out of Lousville last year. 

Pretty "Flower" Daisy Hess

 
Hess came in from Georgia State and took over at shortstop and was named team captan her first season as a Cards student-athlete. She graduates as a five year starter and two time All-ACC selection.

Richardson

Richardson was also at Georgia State before arriving at Lousville and became a Cards starting infielder, either at second or third base. 

Alyssa

Zabala had third team All-ACC honors her rookie season and led the Cards in pitching her sophomore year....gathering 18 wins. 

We are proud of these student-athetes that are getting it done in the classroom as well as on the field.  Although Hess and Richardson will be missed in the infield, Zabala. Booe and Goff should be strong factors on the 2025 Cards roster. 

paulie

Softball Concludes Season with Win -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Photo by NBC / Getty Images / Justin Casterline

Happy Monday!... or something like that. The Monday after Derby weekend should be recognized as a holiday due to the fact we could all use an extra recovery day. Over 107,000 in attendance for the Kentucky Oaks, over 156,000 in attendance for the Kentucky Derby, and a record number of bets placed worldwide means it was another successful Derby season here in 'The Ville'.

Paulie had some solid picks for those of you who partake in those types of events. Sadly, I ended up in the hole just a little bit- an Andrew Jackson and an Alexander Hamilton, but that's the risk you take. A head bob at the finish line may or may not go your way and this year did not go my way.

As you can tell, this is not Paulie. He and Sonya made a quick trip up to Cincinnati early this morning so he made a call to the bullpen for the day.

Softball Goes Out with a Bang, Wins Big

It may have come a day late and a dollar short, but Louisville softball earned a win yesterday. The Cards took down Boston College 11-4 in the series finale to conclude the regular season 27-25. They were one game away from qualifying for the ACC Tournament (they finished 11th in the conference), and as Jeff mentioned yesterday, the Cards are considered eligible to make the NCAA Tournament but realistically have little chance of getting in.

Louisville wasted no time in putting a run on the scoreboard. Daisy Hess and Bailee Richardson led the game off with back-to-back walks. Riley Frizell hit a single to the outfield, which scored Hess. Boston College evened the score later that inning with a solo home run.

In the third inning, Richardson's second walk came at an opportune time due to a Vanessa Miller home run later in the inning. The Cards did give up a pair of runs in the fourth inning. Louisville answered in the top half of the following inning to regain the lead 4-3 thanks to a solo shot by Gabby Holloway.

Singles by Hess and Richardson and a walk by Frizell loaded the bases in the sixth inning. Holloway's sac fly helped the Cards push the lead to 5-3 before the Eagles hit a home run that same inning to bring the score within one.

The seventh inning proved to be a good one as the Cards put up a six spot. Kiley Goff and Mia Forsythe opened the inning with back-to-back singles. A Jac Hasty fielder's choice ended up with Goff out at third but runners still on first and second. Hess came up and made the most out of her final collegiate plate appearance, hitting a three-run home run. Keep in mind that the Cards held a one-run lead entering the inning so this "touch 'em all" gave Louisville a four-run advantage. Richardson and Frizell walked after that and were driven in on a double by Miller, who then was able to advance to third. Holloway hit another sac fly to plate Miller.

Brooke Gray was able to complete the full game in the final inning with many thanks to a game-ending play at the plate. The win is Gray's fourth of the season.

It was a great final game for Louisville's eight seniors. Their stats are as follows:

-Daisy Hess (3-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, BB)

-Bailee Richardson (1-1, 1B, 4 BB)

-Riley Frizell (1-3, 1 RBI, BB)

-Vanessa Miller (2-5, 2B, HR, 4 RBI)

-Gabby Holloway (1-2, HR, 3 RBI, BB)

-Paige Geraghty (2-5)

-Kiley Goff (1-2, BB, HBP)

-Mia Forsythe (1-4)

-Bailee Richardson's four walks in the game tied a program record.

-Mia Forsythe recorded her first hit of the season.

-Kiley Goff was hit by a pitch for the 21st time this season, ranking second in program history.

-Riley Frizell led the team with 13 home runs and 49 rbis.

-Daisy Hess led the team with 34 walks this season, ranking fifth in program history.

-Vanessa Miller led the team with 13 stolen bases this season while also posting career bests with 11 home runs and 39 rbis.

This season certainly didn't end up how we had hoped, but the Cards did get wins against ranked opponents in Arizona, Duke, Florida State, and Clemson. Errors and not being able to close out games were the two big killers. The Cards lost 14 games by two runs or less or in extra innings. Louisville finished the year with 59 defensive errors and a .960 fielding percentage.

Cardinal Couple has reached out about potentially interviewing some of the graduating seniors in the coming weeks. We hope to hear back with good news soon!

Tune back in tomorrow to see what insight Paulie will offer for us.

Happy Monday and Go Cards!

Jared

Lax and Softball Win -- ACC WBB Tourney Day 1 -- UofL WBB in Action -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Kokoro Nakazawa Goes Off as Lax Defeats Cincinnati

Kokoro Nakazawa recorded her first career hat trick and scored enough for two hat tricks with six goals as Louisville lacrosse defeated Cincinnati 18-13. The Cards are now on a two-match win streak and have improved to 3-4.

Cincinnati raced out to a 4-0 lead. The Cards were quick to answer with a 5-0 spurt to take the lead. The Bearcats answered with a couple quick goals to put the score in their advantage but Louisville would be the team leading at halftime, 8-6. The run right before halftime continued into the second half and Louisville found themselves up 10-6. The Cards would stretch their lead to 15-8, but Cincinnati scored five of the last eight goals in the match to bring the score a bit closer.

Kokoro Nakazawa led the field with six goals. Allegra Catalano (four goals) and Negai Nakazawa (three goals) each recorded a hat trick. Rian Adkins, Kylea Dobson, Tiffany Natoli, Maggie McMahon, and Nicole Perroni each logged a goal. Perroni's goal came with 1:40 remaining to extend her school record scoring streak to 43 games.

Sara Addeche got the start in goal. She was limited to three saves with 13 goals allowed. Despite the off game, the senior goalkeeper is still one of the top in the country in total saves. With a sizable lead late in the match, Scott Teeter chose to let J Pleck get a few minutes in the net.

The Cards outshot the Bearcats 40-20 with 31 of those being on goal. They also dominated the draw controls 21-14.

Louisville returns home on Sunday to host a top 10 Boston College team.

Softball Upsets Arizona in Midweek Game

There's no better way to bounce back from a rough weekend than to get a win on your home turf against a ranked opponent, and that's just what Louisville softball did. The Cards defeated #24 Arizona 5-3.

Alyssa Zabala tossed a complete game for the win to improve her record in the circle to 10-1. She has earned the last six wins for the Cards. Vanessa Miller and Bailee Richardson each hit home runs in the win.

While Louisville threatened to score in the first inning, they would end the frame empty-handed, but would answer with three runs an inning later. Paige Geraghty's rbi single plated the first run. Ally Alexander scored on an error by the Arizona defense and Gabby Holloway's fielder's choice helped score the third run.

Miller sent a shot over the right field wall that landed on the far side of the red track that encircles the stadium to help the Cards go up four.

After retiring the first 11 batters of the game, Zabala's bid for a perfect game ended late in the fourth inning after allowing a couple hits and a single run for the Arizona.

A home run by Richardson to dead center in the fifth inning got the run back for the Cards before Arizona posted a pair of runs on a homer by Louisville native Allie Skaggs. However, the Wildcats' rally came up short.

Louisville made the most out of their five hits, piecing together three walks and a few Arizona errors in the mix. Zabala recorded five strikeouts to just two walks and six hits.

I got a chance to speak with Vanessa Miller and Alyssa Zabala following the game. You can watch it here.

Louisville improves to 16-5 on the season. They remain home at Ulmer Stadium this weekend with a three-game series against ranked Virginia Tech.

ACC WBB Tournament Day One

Opening day of the ACC Women's Basketball Tournament brought plenty of excitement and two upsets by seeding.

In the first game of the tournament, 13-seed Boston College used a strong first quarter to hold on for a win against 12-seed Clemson.

In the second game, 10-seed Georgia Tech needed a big fourth quarter to pull away from 15-seed Pitt.

In the night game, 14-seed Wake Forest pulled off the biggest surprise by defeating 11-seed Virginia in the final couple minutes.

So, how are the brackets looking? Well, of the 23 entries we have this year, none are perfect, but none are winless. 13 brackets were ruined after the first game when Boston College took down Clemson. The few remaining perfect brackets suffered mightily when Virginia fell to Wake Forest. That puts all brackets at either 2-1 or 1-2. With 11 games remaining, this is still anyone's game.

Louisville Faces Boston College at 11:00am

Playing in their first game of the 2024 ACC Women's Basketball Tournament, 5-seed Louisville gears up to take on 13-seed Boston College. 

The Cards and Eagles met once this season, with the former walking away with a two-point road win. Nina Rickards made a layup with 19 seconds left to secure the win.

Louisville is 16-1 all-time against Boston College with the only loss coming in the first ever meeting between the programs back in 1985. Four of the last five match-ups have been within 10 points.

In their nine ACC Tournaments, Louisville has compiled a 14-8 record. They have appeared in the championship game four times and won the title in 2018 against Notre Dame.

This one will be aired on ACC Network but can also be viewed online or on the ESPN app. For radio, Nick Curran and Cortnee Walton will be on 93.9 FM.

The other three games today feature 8-seed North Carolina vs 9-seed Miami, 7-seed Duke vs 10-seed Georgia Tech, and 6-seed Florida State vs 14-seed Wake Forest.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Newcomers in the New Year; Part 1 -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

New Faces in Spring Sports

The turning of the calendar page to January means all kinds of things. For example, now I can officially ignore the oversized planner that spanned the 2023-24 academic calendar in favor of the more compact 2024 planner that I bought in November rather than only unofficially ignore it. It also means that we'll start to think about spring, despite winter beginning just over two weeks ago. Funny how your brain works, right?

While we're just getting into conference play in basketball, spring sports will be on us in hurry, so let's take a little bit to look at the new names we'll need to get used to in softball and lacrosse this season. This will be a two part series, as I'll cover softball today and lacrosse on Saturday. 

Softball Sees Big Turnover

The transfer portal giveth and the transfer portal taketh away. Last season's softball team saw quite a bit of the taking, so a fair bit of giving was needed to fill the spots. Right out of the gate (we're going to go in number order because it's easiest to compare the rosters) we see a change. 

Wearing 00 for Louisville in 2024 will not be Cassie Grizzard, as she transferred to Virginia Tech. Instead, it will be Izzy Harrison, the junior transfer from UK. Harrison is a right-handed pitcher who made 10 starts in 27 appearances for the Wildcats. She threw 47 strikeouts in 42.2 innings. The Franklin, Indiana native was 3-3 in decisions at UK, with a 6.40 ERA. She threw two complete games. Harrison is a one-way player, as she saw only one at-bat in her two seasons with the Cats. Louisville needs to replace a lot of pitching, so we'll hope that Holly Aprile can calm Harrison down in the circle to reduce the number of walks and runs allowed.

Brooke Gray is the big name here. Gray comes in as the KY Gatorade Softball Player of the Year and Kentucky's Miss Softball. Gray was the MVP of the 2022 and 2023 state tournaments, both of which Ballard won. In her final two seasons with Ballard, Gray was 57-0 and struck out 687 in 376 innings. Her ERA was 0.82 as a junior and 0.81 as a senior. Gray is among the most lauded incoming freshmen that Louisville has had in any sport, especially as a hometown hero. Gray will join Alyssa Zabala as the two leaders on the pitching staff, as the Cards have to replace starts vacated by Taylor Roby. Gray can't help fill the void in the batter's box, but she should be a sight to see in the circle. Oh yeah... and Gray wears #1.

We won't dwell on the missing number 2 here, as Paige Geraghty retains the 3 (it's Sarah Gordon, the star catcher who transferred to Georgia. You remember her. Let's not talk about it.) We got one whole player before a new face showed up again. Bailee Richardson transfers in from Georgia State and wears number 4. I wrote a bit about Richardson at the time that her transfer was announced, because it was the summer and news was gold. Richardson was the team leader in RBIs (33), doubles (8), home runs (9), and slugging percentage (.551). In that article, I prognosticated that Richardson would slot in next to her former teammate, Daisy Hess, on the left side of the infield. With Easton Lotus at second, that would still seem a safe bet. I also suggested that might move Ally Alexander to catcher. We'll talk more about that in a bit.

After Pickle Winkler, we say goodbye to the number 7 as Hannah File graduates, but we haven't gotten rid of the 8. That's right, someone will step into the very big shoes left by Taylor Roby and wear the 8. Ava Venturelli is a freshman outfielder from Taunton, Massachusetts. You may remember that Louisville needs an outfielder as Korbe Otis also departed. Venturelli (a few times typing that and she might just become Ava) was a three-peat champion in high school and was nominated for the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior. She was named the 20th overall recruit by Extra Innings and was No. 71 in the Extra Elite 100. Venturelli hit .479 with a .565 OBP as a senior and had 9 home runs and 35 RBIs. Her power was down a bit, but perhaps because she was being walked after hitting .457 with 12 homers and 46 RBIs as a junior. 

Two more newbies come after Vanessa Miller. Chelsea Mack is a sophomore transfer from UK, joining Harrison as a player changing allegiances. Louisville's new #10 was a role player for UK, as she saw just 13 at-bats last season. She was used as a pinch runner effectively, as she stole 8 bases and scored six runs. One of each of those came in UK's win over Louisville. Mack hit .231 with three singles and had one strikeout. Experience is hard to come by as a freshman, but I think that the outfielder could find a spot in this lineup.

Char Lorenz

Jac Hasty

Next is one of the reasons I'm confused about Louisville's infield. Jac Hasty is a C/INF from Chesapeake, Virginia. Hasty joins Kiley Goff (39) and Char Lorenz (42) as incoming catchers, so I'm just going to talk about them all here. Goff seems most likely to win the spot. She's a senior transfer from Maryland who started her career in her backyard at Purdue. She's from West Lafayette. In her freshman season, she started 40 games and played in all 44. She was second on the team in runs and hits and led the team in triples. Last season with Maryland, she started 54 games, primarily as a catcher. She led the team in runs and led the Big Ten in thrown out baserunners. On the base paths herself, Goff was 18-22. Pretty good. Hasty and Lorenz, both freshman, will have their work cut out for them against a veteran like Goff, especially one with her numbers already in college. Both freshmen come with success of their own in high school, so we'll keep an eye on how this battle plays out. 

Kiley Goff

For the first time after Hasty at 11, we have two players back-to-back that are returning, both of whom I've already mentioned (12-Lotus, 13-Zabala). Riley Frizell is the next newcomer at 14, and she transfers in from Missouri. The infielder (wait, there are a bunch of those) started in 49 games for the Tigers last year, 28 times at 1B and 21 times at DP. We'll have to get used to a regular designated player without Roby playing two ways every other game. As a junior, Frizell hit .216 with five doubles, a triple, five homers, and 22 RBI. Her OBP ticks up a bit to .284, but her .665 OPS isn't stunning. Where she excels is on defense. Frizell finished with a .977 fielding percentage as a freshman, dropped slightly to .962 as a sophomore (only 2 errors on 53 chances), and then posted a 1.000 fielding percentage last year with 213 putouts and five assists. Louisville needs consistency on defense. Perhaps Frizell can help provide it.

Had Frizell worn 77 like she did at Mizzou instead of 14, we would have had six uninterrupted players, so the next four (Forsythe, Holloway, Hess, and Alexander) are veterans on the team. Katie Thatcher wears 24, replacing Mikayla Hurst in the number. (I didn't mention it earlier, but Jac Hasty inherits the 11 from Taja Felder.) Thatcher is a utility player that bats and throws left-handed. The freshman from Rock Falls, Illinois is an on-base machine, as she hit .553 as a senior. She turned 57 hits in 51 runs and 42 RBIs while only hitting 9 homers. Though not listed as a pitcher on Louisville's roster, Thatcher was 19-3 with a 1.81 ERA and 214 strikeouts last year. She was named to the first team all-state team last year and was first team all-conference in the last two. Thatcher was named the 2023 Sauk Valley Player of the Year.

Maddi Grant wears 25, Sam Booe wears 51, and I've already talked about Kiley Goff and Char Lorenz. That means that Lindsey Mullen (28) is the last newcomer (players only) on the squad. Mullen is a freshman from Leesburg, Virginia and is a right-handed pitcher. We'll see whether or not she plays both ways at UofL, but Mullen added a .469 average and 8 homers to her sparkling 0.39 ERA last season. She also struck out 193 batters in 89.2 innings. Mullen was the 4C Co-Region Player of the Year last year and helped her team to the state quarterfinals. Lindsey will join what looks to be an impressive bunch of arms to try to solidify what has been a sore spot for the Cards of late, despite strong individual performances. 

In addition to the players, Holly Aprile's coaching staff sees a bit of a shakeup this year. Griffin Joiner remains the first assistant, but the rest of the staff (with the exception of an undergraduate manager) turns over. Bryce Neal and Casey Bonk are out as assistant coach and director of operations and Aprile brings in two assistants as well as a new ops director in response. Bryan Sabatella comes over after two seasons as the hitting and infield coach at Utah Tech and DeeDee Morris joins the staff after 8 seasons as an assistant at Mount St. Joseph University. Morris joined the Mount after a year as a Graduate assistant at her alma mater, NKU. Jeremy Randolph is the new director of operations, coming to Louisville after two years in the same role for the UCF baseball team. Randolph played most of his collegiate ball for Wright State before moving to Alabama as a graduate transfer. Randolph led the Tide in appearances (22) and saves (9) in 2019 before being drafted by the Cardinals in the 26th round. He joined the staff at UCF after one year in the minors. 

All in all, the Cards welcome 11 new players to the roster and say goodbye to just seven. It should be an exciting season this year as Louisville looks to build on an NCAA Regional appearance from a year ago. The Cards will get underway in just over a month as they kick off the season at the FGCU Classic on February 9th.

As I mentioned, tune in for the continuation of this miniseries on Saturday when we look at lacrosse.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

All photos are official player portraits from gocards.com.

Softball Brings in Transfer Infielder -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Bailee Richardson Joins Louisville in 2024

Daisy Hess will no longer be the only former Georgia State player on the Louisville softball roster next season. Hess's former teammate for the Panthers, Bailee Richardson, will join Louisville as a graduate transfer next season. Last season, Richardson led the team in RBIs (33), doubles (8), home runs (9), and slugging percentage (.551). She was 7 for 7 on stolen bases as well. The infielder joined Georgia State after winning back-to-back state championships in high school and being named the defensive player of the year in 2018. 

Similar to Hess, a lot may be expected of Richardson as a touted glove straight out of the gate. We'll have to see how that turns out, but Richardson will also look to give the Cards a boost in an offense that has more holes than expected after the end of last season. For her career, Richardson was a .310 hitter that totaled 29 home runs, 25 doubles, 107 RBIs, and 89 runs. Hitting for average should transfer pretty well across leagues in softball, and Louisville will definitely need some players that can make the most of their time at the plate after losing an OBP leader in Korbe Otis from last season and an RBI machine in Sarah Gordon. 

2022 GSU Softball with Hess (b. row, 3rd from
right) and Richardson (m. row, 3rd from right)

The addition of Richardson may give an indication of what Louisville intends to do about the catcher position. Richardson played some second base, but it feels safe to say Easton Lotus has that position locked down. Richardson's other regular position was the hot corner at third. Louisville has three players listed with catcher as one of their positions on the 2024 roster. Two are freshmen. The third is Ally Alexander, who has primarily played third for the Cards. Sliding Alexander 60 feet and inserting Richardson alongside her former teammate on the left side of the infield could provide the defense Louisville needs, but things might get thorny if one of the freshmen is a better fit behind the plate. The Cards will get one year of eligibility from Richardson before she and Hess graduate from UofL together.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll still be without Jared this week but we should have plenty of hands on deck to bring you a full show. We'll have some Globl Jam to talk about after missing last week as well as plenty of news and notes about the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics from the last couple of weeks. As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case