Since we have moved out of Cards WBB coverage for the time being, let's catch up on one of the spring sports at UofL. Louisville Softball picked up a nice win against Georgia Tech today at Ulmer Stadium to go 29-7 on the season and improve to 6-3 in the ACC. Alyssa Zabala went the distance in the circle for the Cards, picking up her seventh win of the season while allowing just three hits.
For 3- 1/2 innings, this one was a scoreless affair. The Cards finally broke through for a run when they managed to "fill the bags full of Cards" when Easton Lotus opened the bottom of the fourth with a single and Camryn Lookadoo and Madison Pickens were hit by pitches. Taylor Monroe sent a deep fly to center that was caught... but Lotus tagged and scored for UofL.
Ava is a junior for the Cards from Taunton, MA.
Ava Venturelli made it 2-0 Cards with a solo home run and the Cards added their final run of the game when Lookadoo hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Chelsea Mack.
Georgia Tech opened the seventh with a solo home run off Zabala, but she sent the Bees to the dugout out with three straight outs after that and ended the game.
The Cards return to action Tuesday when they travel to Richmond, KY to face Eastern Kentucky University. The Colonels are 18-15 on the season...but 11-4 at home. It's scheduled for an ESPN+ broadcast...starting at 6 p.m.
GA TECH WINS WITH HOME RUN OVER CARDS SOFTBALL IN NINE INNINGS
Louisville Softball fought the good fight in the series finale at Georgia Tech Sunday and went to extra innngs with some dramatics, but tt was the Atlanta squad who got the last blast -- Mallorie Black's two out, two run home run to deep center in the ninth gave the Tech squad the game winner and the series winner.
A 5-3 win for the homestanding squad in a game that was in their favor after six innings...GT was holdng a 3-1 lead over Louisville, but Louisville bombs got them back in it,,, Vanessa Miller's homer in the sixth got Louisville within one at 3-2 going into the seventh. Riley Frizell sent a boomer that tied it in the seventh, Frizell's tying shot came with two outs in the inning...the Cards very last chance to force any extra play.
GT came right back and nearly won it in the bottom of the seventh when Jin Sileo sent a fly ball to deep left center that bounced off the top of the wall and back into the field to give her a triple, Three more inches would have put the ball out of the stadium and ended the contest, but a lengthy review showed it was just short.. Alyssa Zabala regrouped and got the final two outs of the inning without Sileo scoring, though, to force extra innings continuation.
After an uneverntful eighth for both squads, the Cards had their chance to win the contest in the top of the ninth when Kiley Goff started the inning by getting hit by a pitch. She took second on a ground out and went to third on a GT error, but a fly out ended the top of the ninth with no runs crossing the plate for the Cards. Black's.boomer, a massive, toweing shot to center that left no doubt about whether it was it going to leave or not to end the affair in GT's favor
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It was a fun Sunday thriller on the ACCNX and the Cards had their chances to leave Atlanta with the "W" but sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way....or stop at the fence...in the case of Black's blast off Zabala that ended it
Louisville (24-18, 5-10) drops the series two games to one to Georgia Tech and returns back home to Ulmer to try non-conference fare...entertaining EKU on Tuesday.
What a difference a day makes in the sport of softball. Louisville had the bats working in fine fashion Saturday against the Yellow Jackets and the Cardinal pitchers held GT to just two runs in a 10-2 win.
Sunday was a different story.
The Atlanta ACC member blasted Cardinal pitching for four home runs and held UofL batters to just two runs and four hits to take the series finale 12-2 on Sunday. The series splits 2-2 for the squads -- Louisville drops to 15-17 overall now and 9-12 in ACC play and the Yellow Jackets go to 12-20 overall and 6-16 in the ACC.
The Cards got started on the right foot, with a 2-0 lead, going into the bottom of the third. Makayla Hurst singled in Carmyn Greenwood in the first inning for Louisville's first score and Taylor Roby crushed her 11th home run of the season in the third to make it 2-0.
Things changed in the bottom of the third, though. Tech plated four runs in that inning nd would plate four more runs in the fourth and fifth innings each to get the run-rule victory.
Taylor Roby was one of four Louisville pitchers to enter the circle and went three innings, allowing three runs on just two hits. Six walks helped GT's cause, though, and the Rambin' Wreck touched Gabby Holloway, Jen Leonhardt and Payton Hudson for the remainder of their run production.
Blake Neleman went all five innings in the circle for GT, and improved to 6-5 on the season.
Louisville returns home for a four-game series against Duke this upcoming weekend. Duke is in fourth place in the ACC standings with a 27-9, 15-9 mark. Five squads in the ACC have either eight or nine conference wins, the separating factor is in the number of losses each has. Syracuse is 8-8, Notre Dame 9-10, North Carolina 8-9 and Virginia is in tenth place with a 9-16 ACC record.
The top ten teams, figured by conference record percentage and the Cards currently sit in ninth place. The qualifying teams will participate in the 2021 ACC Softball Tournament in Louisville, KY May 6th-9th. The top six squads get a first round bye, while seeds #7-10 play on the first day to advance to the round of eight.
13 of the 15 ACC Conference members play softball -- Miami and Wake Forest do not field teams.
CHEER SQUADS TAKE TWO TITLES
UofL's Spirit Squads took home first place in two of the six National Championship categories this weekend in Daytona Beach, FL
The All-Girl team won their 17th National Cheer Association title (NCA) since 1998, besting Oklahoma State, Iowa State, South Carolina and Missouri in the final five competition.
The Small Co-Ed squad also grabbed the gold and won their division, beating out Arkansas St. and Coastal Carolina.
In the other events:
-- The Cards finished third in Large Co-Ed, behind Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.
-- The Dance Team squad (the LadyBirds) placed second behind South Carolina
-- The Hip-Hop Dance Team was second, behind BYU.
-- Louisville had two teams n the Group Stunt performance and they grabbed second and fourth places.
(I never knew there were so many different aspects of Cheer and Dance, but have certainly enjoyed their performances at UofL athletic events over the years.) Congratulations to all the participants and the winners !!
Louisville scored in every inning of their game against Georgia Tech yesterday. Eventually winning it on the run rule, 10-2 in the 6th inning. Meanwhile, GT would only put up single run innings in the 1st and 6th.
Carmyn Greenwood is settling in to her lead-off hitting position well, and did so yesterday with a single on the first pitch. A steal to take 2nd positioned her to score the run on Makayla Hurst's single.
Maddy Newman was the scorer in the 2nd inning, getting it started by using her speed to beat out the throw at 1st. Sydney Bickel walked to push Newman to 2nd and then, back at the top of the lineup, Greenwood fired the ball out to left field, giving the quick Newman time to reach home.
UofL put a crooked number on the board in the 3rd. Taylor Roby singled, followed by Makayla Hurst taking a shot beyond the fence in right center field. That makes six homers for Hurst for the year, and brough the score to 4-1.
Celene Funke used her speed, and took advantage of an error to reach, and then of course stole 2nd, which is nearly a given for Funke. She then had it somewhat mooted by a pair of walks to Roby and Jennifer Leonhardt. Charley Butler used an infield single with the bases now loaded to bring Funke home.
Moving to the 5th inning, the other Greenwood sister got it started. Cassady doubled and then scored on a hit by Maddy Newman. Newman then advanced to 2nd thanks to a Bickel sacrifice bunt. Carmyn Greenwood then struck a well hit ball to left field. After the bounce, Newman advanced to 3rd and while GT was trying to get her out there, Greenwood moved onward to 2nd. Now with two runners in scoring position, Funke put it down the right field line, and made a double out of it, scoring Newman and Greenwood in the process.
Finally, in the 6th, Charley Butler again showed her speed, first by getting on base thanks to a fielding error by the GT short stop, then by stealing 2nd, again by taking 3rd on a wild pitch, and finally by getting home before the throw on a Cassady Greenwood single to the short stop. Greenwood took 2nd on a wild pitch and then would score when sister Carmyn snuck a shot through the infield and out to left field. That brought the score to 10-1 in the middle of the 6th inning. Georgia Tech needed to at least score two to keep the game going into the 6th, but they were only able to get one across.
The fourth and final game of the series will be today at noon available on The ACC Network Extra as usual. While there is a significant amount of rain down along the Florida panhandle, that is expected to stay well south of the Atlanta area, which result in a beautiful day for Softball, sunny and 74 being the forecast for the day.
Field Hockey
UofL vs Duke in Field Hockey seems to always be a recipe for a great and exciting game and this one was no exception.
You would've been excused for doubting this was going to be the case at halftime as the only score of the game to that point had come from Alli Bitting putting a rebound off of a penalty corner shot into the cage in the half.
The 2nd half was rather different, though. Duke got the equalizer within a minute of the 2nd half starting. UofL would get back on top, though with India Reed feeding an assist to Aimee Plumb to make it 2-1. Duke would bookend the 3rd quarter, however, with a penalty corner goal to even the score at two apiece.
The Blue Devils got their first lead of the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter on another penalty corner goal. Mercedes Pastor received a penalty stroke opportunity midway through the quarter and scored it to even the score back up at three.
The knot up at three would hold through the end of regulation and through two 7v7 overtime periods, leading a penalty strokes to decide it. Mackenzie Karl, Katie Schneider, Charlie van Oirshot, and Mercedes Pastor, and made their shots, but were matched by four by Duke. After the initial five strokes, the sudden victory strokes decided it for Duke after two additional rounds.
Field Hockey returns home for the regular season finale, bringing in Wake Forest, and presumably celebrating Senior Day. Saturday, April 17th at noon will be the time for this one. At this point, no video link is shown on UofL's site, but I would expect it to be available on ACC Network Extra.
Today's Schedule
Today's schedule is a little lighter than we've seen over the past few weeks. Tennis hosts Clemson starting at noon at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center. And, of course, the aforementioned Softball game, also at noon at Georgia Tech.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast
Case, Jared, Paulie, and I spent a few minutes talking about everything but UofL women's sports at the beginning of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast, but did get down to business. Mostly we talked about Softball, but did cover Lacrosse, and Field Hockey, and a touch on Volleyball and Basketball. Check it out below.
CARDS SWEEP DAY, SERIES AGAINST THE RAMBLIN WRECK It is a rarity in the college softball world to play three games in one day. It's even rarer for one team to win all three contests, but that's what the Louisville Softball team did on Easter Sunday at Ulmer Stadium on the Don Dobina Field against Georgia Tech.
Louisville head coach Holly Aprile couldn't ever remember doing it in her college coaching career. Cardinal third baseman Sidney Melton had never played in and won three on the same day. A 6 1/2 hour time frame on the same day was long and tiring for the teams. But, that's what the Red and Black accomplished...with a 11-7, 7-2 and 11-10 whitewash of the YellowJackets from Atlanta. Action began promptly at 10 a.m. yesterday, a swirling and almost mysterious fog sweeping across the dirt infield from the warming dirt and humid but dry conditions.You couldn't see downtown from the press box -- that much fog still remained in the Louisville area -- but the Cards held a 10-5 lead from the Friday afternoon came that was stopped because of rain. The scenario began with no outs, Georgia Tech at bat and runners on second and third. Danielle Watson was in the circle for the Cards and promptly walked the first batter she faced. With the bags full of YellowJackets, the situation looked ominous and the atmosphere tense. Watson and her teammates got out of the dire circumstances, though, getting three straight outs, two of them strikeouts, and allowing just one run. The ominous monster had not risen from the fog and engulfed the Cards. They still led 10-6 Charley Butler began the top of the fifth with a single and proceeded around the bases to score for the Cards, using a Tech throwing error and run down of Melton trying to steal second after a walk. 11-6. The visitors loomed large again in the top the sixth -- a double and single cut the Cards lead to four again. The Cards went down in order in the bottom of the sixth, producing three attempts that never got out if the infield, but held court in the top of the seventh as Watson collected two more "K's" and just a walk. It was an early preview of the kind of day Watson was going to produce in the circle and the Cards won 11-7 in the "continuation" game. ************************************************************************************************************
Louisville started game two with Watson in the circle again and decided to put this one out of reach early. After she set the Jackets down with a 1-2-3 top of the first, Louisville exploded for five runs on three walks and three hits. Bulter's single to right drove home two Cardinal runners and a booming double from Maddy Newman to right center had the Cards in great shape. Watson was "on" in the circle and was dispensing strike outs. Tech managed just two runs and two hits in the seven-inning second contest, the sophomore pitcher from Osceola, IN. punched out 11 Tech participants to tie her career strike out record. Louisville tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth when Newman and Celene Funke scored -- aided by a clutch single from Melton and a run-down on an attempted steal of second by Melton. 7-2 Cards, with Watson going the distance and picking up her second win of the day. ************************************************************************************************************ Georgia Tech decided they'd try the "big lead early" scenario in the final game of Easter Sunday. They rocked starting pitcher Megan Hensley, who was relieved in the circle with just one out by Taylor Roby,and when the fog had cleared, the Cards found themselves in a 5-0 hole. Louisville was undaunted, however. They struck back for four runs in the bottom of the first. Doubles by Funke, Melton and Roby, a walk to Hensley and a Taylor Roby single produced the damage. While Roby held the G.T. squad scoreless over the next few innings, the Cards continued to chip away at the lead and regain it. Roby smashed a home run to left center to tie it in the second. The Cards took the lead in the bottom of the third 6-5 when Rebecca Chung powered a double to deep center and scored on a Cassady Greenwood sacrifice fly. Then, Tech woke up for the second time in the game. Three singles filled the bags and a sacrifice fly tied it up again. Crosby Huckabay came to the plate and absolutely crushed a ball to left center that bounced off the top of the Ulmer Stadium scoreboard for a grand slam. UofL found themselves in a 10-6 trailing situation going into the bottom of the fourth. These birds weren't done flying, though. Back-to-back home runs from Hensley and Chung cut the Tech lead to 11-8. After holding the softball version of the Rambling Wreck scoreless in the top of the fifth, Louisville came to the plate needing two to tie and three to take the lead. At this time, another aspect developed. The visitors, it seemed, had a flight to catch back to Atlanta. They needed to end this one at 4:25 p.m. to get to the airport in time. The Georgia Tech assistant S.I.D. sitting next to me in the press box was nervous and watching the clock. Holly Aprile decided not to tell her squad about the intended Georgia Tech sudden departure until the Cards came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. Why put any undue pressure on the squad, right? This bottom of the fifth inning started out pretty rough for Louisville. Funke grounded out to the Tech pitcher. Melton lifted a lazy fly to center that was caught. Two down. But Megan Hensley wasn't ready to tote the equipment bag back to the Koetter Center yet and drilled a sharp single to left. Roby followed suit and singled to center. Caitlin Ferguson drew a walk from Tech hurler Brooke Barfield. With the bases loaded, Chung came to the plate and calmly drove one deep to right center. It soared past the fielders and the Cardinal runners were flying as well. Chung had emptied the bases with a double and Louisville led 11-10. The teams started the top of the sixth -- but with Georgia Tech batting, with one out and one on -- Georgia Tech head coach Aileen Morales came out of the dugout at 4:26 p.m., motioned to the home plate umpire that they were done and the teams lined up for the post game handshakes. Tech scampered to the bus. 11-10 the final tally and the Cards had swept the day. A full day of Softball. A total of 53 runs scored in the series. The Cards go to 31-15 and 11-7 in the ACC. That's a pretty good Easter Sunday. As if in agreement, the sun broke out and smiled down upon us as we conducted the post game interviews. A Cardinal squad that is 9-3 in April. UofL Softball has won seven of their last night. It would seem that Aprile is doing well in April. (TODAY'S PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON)
Jeff Walz's UofL WBB squad looks for their 25th win of the season with a 1 p.m. tip against the Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville, VA. The Cards have cinched a 3rd place finish in the ACC regular-season standings but look to build momentum for the ACC Tournament that begins Wednesday Where better to keep the momentum building than in the gym of an opponent celebrating Senior Day that you beat by 12 earlier in the season? The Cavs have lost their mojo, losing five out of their last six...including a heartbreaking 72-70 fall at UNC Thursday night. Virginia (16-12, 6-9) has secured a spot safe from having to play on opening day of the ACC Tourney but will try to send seniors Sarah Imovbioh and Sara Beth Barnette successfully into home court retirement with a "W". This one is on RSN and Fox Sports South (Deb Antonelli) for viewing and Matt and AJ jump back to WKRD 790 AM for the radio feed. We'll recap it later tonight. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOFTBALL SWEEPS YELLOW JACKETS
Louisville Softball got the ACC season off to a successful start by swatting the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 6-1 and 5-4 in Atlanta yesterday. LOUISVILLE 6 - GA TECH 1 Maryssa Becker was the story in the first game...tossing a two-hitter at GT and going to 2-0 in the season. The Cards were deadlocked at 1-1 going into the top of the fourth with Ga. Tech but a Kelsi Jones walk and Hailey Smith homer to left (a booming blast OVER the scoreboard) set the tally at 3-1. The Cards would push that to 6-1 in the sixth. Smith walked, stole second and scored on a Nicole Puhafl single. Brittany Sims sent a two-run blast out of the park to complete the scoring. LOUISVILLE 5 - GA TECH 4 The Cards rallied from a 3-1 deficit to take the nightcap...Louisville getting six strong innings of relief from Shelby McCombs (3-1) to get the "W". Becker began the scoring with a solo fence clearer in the first but Madi Norman was touched for three runs in the bottom of the inning. Jones scored on a Smith single in the 3rd to get within one and regained the lead in the sixth when Whitney Arion notched her third "see ya later" of the year with two on. The two squads close out the series today with a noon start ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LACROSSE DOWNS DENVER 14-9
Kaylin Morissette led a balanced Louisville LAX scoring attack to take Kellie Young's squad to 3-0 on the season. The Cards get the 14-9 win behinds Morissette's four goals and nine draw controls on the road. All the way, Kay! The Cards held a 2-0 lead after seven minutes with goals from Faye Brust and Cortnee Daley. Brust and Heidi Smith scored in a ninety second stretch to give the Cards a 4-1 edge. Morissette went back-to-back in the net and Daley tossed one in to build the Cardinal advantage to 7-2 with nine minutes before halftime...but Denver put two goals on the board to send the Cards to the locker room up 7-4. A strong second half start salted this one away for UofL.
Four straight Uof L goals... beginning with a Brust score just 45 seconds into play and net-finders by Hannah Koloski, Carlissa Corbett and Morissette pumped the Cards lead to 11-4. Denver cut the lead to 11-6 before the Cards could counter with Koloski's third score of the afternoon. The Pioneers placed two more in the net to make it 12-8 with ten minutes left. Koloski stepped up with her third goal a minute later and Morissette concluded the Louisville scoring to set the final 14-9. Goalkeeper Ashley Peacock had six saves on the day. The LAX Cards return home for a Wednesday 3 p.m. tilt against Duquesne. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 10 SECOND DRILL
- We expect the archived version of the CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR to be up and available for listening at Crescent Hill Radio later today. In case you missed it, Worldwide Jeff McAdams made his triumphant return to the microphone and filled us in on his Notre Dame excursion. We also reviewed the WBB Senior Night festivities and played senior audio from the post-game presser that you won't want to miss. Jeff took the WORLDWIDE Quiz and got a "B". See if you can beat him. The topic was ACC WBB. It's radio that is unrehearsed, live, impromptu and the hour just seems to fly by. Link below: A LAPTOP, TWO MICROPHONES AND TWO STOOGES
- Hats off to our February CARDINAL COUPLE contest winner Doug Anderson.
Sonja says: Louisville beats Notre Dame and 123 total points are scored. Leave your picks in the comments sections leading up to Wednesday or e-mail them to cardinalcouple@twc.com WE got a CC T-Shirtand a $25 gift card from Cracker Barrel waiting for the winner. paulie xxxxx
