Diamonds are Forever

Two quick updates for today, focusing on the diamond sports.

Softball

The Softball selection show for the NCAA tournament will be this evening at 10pm on ESPN2.  The Cards are by no means assured of a bid.  The program has a remarkably impressive track record for making NCAA tournament appearances, with bids to the big dance every year for the past 13 years.  That is the majority of the time that this program has been existence, with all of it being led by Coach Sandy Pearsall.  (Side note: on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour yesterday, Paulie was asking our special guest Dalton Ray, of the Louisville Cardinal, who was his favorite coach to do post-game interviews with...the answer for me is Coach P)

Will Maryssa Becker get another opportunity to pitch for the red and black?  Will Moe Meyer and Jordon "The Guv" McNary get another opportunity to fly around the base paths, and left and right field?  Will Tiarra Sanabria get another opportunity to wear the "Queen of 1st Base" tiara?  I certainly hope so.

The thought always crosses my mind that you never want to end the season on a loss, but it's a very rare scenario where it doesn't.  For the UofL Softball team, the only scenario I can think of would be to have a bad enough of a record during the season that a last-game win still wouldn't be enough to lift them into the 8 teams (out of the 11 in conference) that go to the ACC tournament.  I don't even really want to contemplate a season like that, to be honest.

In the meantime, let's celebrate the successes of the season so far, and tune in tonight with hopes and expectations of a 2 or 3 seed in a regional.

The 501st Legion of Louisville marching in the
Pegasus Parade...and potential Dan McDonnell
supporters?

Baseball

With the second win of the series against Clemson, UofL Baseball clinched the series win for Dan McDonnell's 501st win.  Probably even more importantly, however, the win clinched a outright win of the ACC Atlantic Division in Baseball for UofL.  Clemson stands in 2nd place tied with Wake Forest at 16-10, so another win by UofL in their game today at noon on ESPN2, would drop Clemson to 3rd (depending on what happens to Wake, of course).  There is still another week of regular season baseball, so they would still have a chance to make that up, but to say UofL is battling against a motivated team would be the understatement of the week.

In the Coastal Division, North Carolina dropped a puzzler to 6th place (of 7) Virginia Tech, moving UofL that much closer to clinching the overall ACC title.  I believe, if my math is correct, the magic number is 4 wins to do the deed.

A mid-week game at IU is Tuesday evening at 6 pm on The Big Ten Network, and the season finale series this coming weekend brings Florida State (5th of 7 in the Atlantic) in to Jim Patterson stadium.  Your opportunities to see Cards baseball don't end there, however, as the ACC tournament will be hosted at Slugger field downtown, and unless the wheels just totally fall off the bus, expect the Cards to host a regional, and likely even a super-regional presuming  they advance, at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Still plenty of good college baseball in the 'Ville.


The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

We had big fun yesterday on the weekly broadcast of The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour with guest Dalton Ray in our review of Cardinal Athletics. The rebroadcast can be heard at the link below:

THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 5-13-17

-- JMcA

Louisville Lacrosse eliminated from NCAA Tourney by James MAdison -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

5-0 DUKES RUN SENDS CARDS HOME

A 5-0 closing run by the James Madison lacrosse team over the final 15 minutes of the contest propelled them past the Cards and eliminated Louisville from the NCAA Tournament. 

The end of this one was hard to watch...when I did eventually figure out how to watch it...boos and hisses to Penn State for making this a pay-per-view event on my computer but allowing me to watch it free on my diminutive cell phone through the College Sports Network.

Hard to watch in screen size but also in the untimely collapse of the Cards normally strong defense and disappearance of any scoring threats during crunch time. For the fourth straight year, LouLax makes the NCAA Tournament and bows out after the first game. 

The Cards started strong enough...holding a 3-1 lead after 13 minutes of play. Hannah Koloski got the scoring started just two minutes into the match when she connected on a free position attempt. Goals by Jillian Balog and Meghan Siverson followed. JMU did rally with a first half 5-0 run to regain the lead and took a 6-4 lead into halftime. 

The Cards would climb with one in the early part of the second half at 7-6 when Hannah Koloski got her third goal of the game at the 15:48 mark. After that, though, the offense remained silent and the defense fell apart. 

Kellie Young comments: 

"I am super proud of our seniors and what they brought today," said head coach Kellie Young. "They left their hearts on the field and unfortunately the other 23 players did not. The defense played out of their minds to start the game and the attack was playing scared. Our attack then stepped it up in the last eight minutes but you have to play 60 minutes. I am disappointed right now and embarrassed that Louisville lacrosse did not play the level that we played in the ACC Tournament. We will figure it out and attack next year."


A season of ups and downs ends for Louisville LAX. We hope that the disappointment associated with this loss will spur those returning for next year on to do better and go at least one step further in 2018. 


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the CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO SHOW

I meander back into the studio today to co-host The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour with WorldWide Jeff McAdams. Case is off this week, busy with the arduous process and physical exertion of moving...but we have a very special guest scheduled to join us in studio in Louisville Cardinal sports editor Dalton Ray.

We'll run through the worlds of softball, lacrosse and much, much more this morning at 11 a.m. on WCHQ 100.9 FM and at www.crescenthillradio.com plus get a look at what involves being a sports editor for a college newspaper from Dalton. 

Should be fun. Please join us and stay tuned for Handicapping Heroes following the show. 


paulie
xxxxx