GAME TIME CHANGE FOR CARDS SOFTBALL FRIDAY VS KANSAS -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDS VS KANSAS MOVED UP DUE TO WEATHER CONCERNS

A timely update from UofL Softball asst. SID Lori Korte Thursday night as I was preparing the article on the Cards NCAA first round game against Kansas that was scheduled for Friday 5 p.m.

Make that 1 p.m. now.

Inclement weather expected for Columbia, MO. Friday night necessitating the schedule change. Missouri and Indiana State will follow at 4 p.m.

Not a biggie...the Cards left Wednesday for the "Show me" state and are prepared to face the BIG 12 foe. 

Another question in coaching strategy...wondering if

Pearsall will send out Maryssa Becker or not Friday against 'Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk' in hopes of bettering the chances to advance to the winner's bracket in the regional. Shelby McCombs at the ready if chosen to go first...a double elimination format at hand and Louisville technically either the #2 or #3 seed in this regional.

Becker recently selected to the 2015 National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division 1 All-Southeast Region third team. A nice honor for the All-ACC selection...she is 14-7 on the season and has a 2.22 ERA. She's also a force out of the circle...a team-leading 39 RBI's, 9 home runs and a .350 batting average. 

The Cards will need that bat and more tomorrow against the Jayhawks. Well-rested and determined to give seniors Duncan, Jones, Arion and Soles a few more games to perform as Cardinals...Louisville should find the Jayhawk pitching a relief in comparison to some of the circle-masters the Cards have faced this season. 

It'll be available on ESPN3 and UofL's softball twitter account also does a great job of providing updates.

KENNY LOVES LOUISVILLE

Had the opportunity to hear UofL Sports Information Director Kenny Klein speak Thursday night at the monthly meeting of the Sportsmen's Supper Club. Kenny's been on the job since August of 1983...coming to Louisville after a couple of years at Morehead. 

Three things to know about 'KK':

1) He loves Louisville and Louisville athletics. It's a love he shares with a lot of us.

2) He still drives the car every day that Rick Pitino gave him. As we know, Coach P. has a heart the size of Texas.

3) The NCAA Final Four is his favorite event. He's there every year working the media table and so is the UofL Stat crew. 

His enthusiasm and optimism for the school, his bosses and the athletic programs is as strong as it was when he arrived here. He's seen changes galore in the campus and in the community. 

Kenny, his seven assistant SID's and the staff, photographers and video folks keep us 'in the know' and allow us to enjoy the stories, sights and sounds of Cardinal Athletics by providing us a comprehensive overview of 'Cardinalology'

From Milt Wagner to Trez Harrell, from Jackie Spencer to Shoni Schimmel and from Denny Crum to Rick Pitino...Mr.
Klein and crew have seen it all and relay it to us.

We, here at CARDINAL COUPLE, find the SID department indispensable and valuable for what we do. They're just as big a part of the teams we enjoy as the players and coaches...because they provide us with knowledge...and we all know that knowledge is power. We thank Kenny and his hard-working associates. 
  
paulie
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Jayhawks next...Lacrosse players honored -- Tuesday Cardinal Couple

Let's Look at Kansas Softball

As Paulie mentioned yesterday, UofL Softball surprised a number of us by getting a bid to the NCAA.  Probably more shocking is that the ACC got 7 teams in the tournament, with Notre Dame...only one game ahead of us in conference play, four games overall...getting the 16th seed and a Regional hosting opportunity. 

Truly, I still don't get it.

But let's take a look at our opponent for Friday.  The Kansas Jayhawks.  Normally I would say their win over Arkansas would count as a signature win, but the Razorbacks seem to have fallen on hard times, compared to their past powerhouse years, having not even received an at-large bid to the tournament. 

The Kansas non-conference slate was rather underwhelming with a highlight in at-the-time-ranked-number-one Florida that resulted in a 1-7 loss.  The Big-12 does have some good softball teams.  A win over Oklahoma, the 11 seed in the tournament carries some weight, though they did lose the other two games in the series to the Sooners. 

Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, that's about the only good win I see on their schedule.  A series sweep at the hands of a decent Texas team is not anything to be really ashamed of.  Despite Texas Tech not making the tournament, they have traditionally been a good team, so a couple of losses there probably doesn't sting too badly either.  And as Paulie mentioned yesterday, coming into the tournament off a series sweep of Iowa State certainly doesn't hurt in the momentum department.

As far as teams that both the Cardinals and Jayhawks have both faced, we don't get a lot of separation here either.

Kansas swatted Georgia Tech in their non-conference meeting, and we swept the series.  Illinois State got two attempts at both of us with remarkably similar scores.  Both of us took down the other redbirds with a 10-2 run-rule in 5 innings, but The Jayhawks came out on top 4-2 in the other meeting, where we came out on the wrong side of our 4-3 meeting, though it did take 8 innings for that result. 

We both picked up wins over the aforementioned Arkansas Razorbacks, the Jayhawks squeaked a 4-3 win, while we hung an 11-5 win on them.  UMKC dropped games against each of us, 5-2 vs Kansas, and 3-2 against us.

The NCAA Softball tournament basically consists for double-elimination tournaments at each Regional location, the winner advancing to a best of three series with an opponent at a Super-Regional (which, if you think of it is a double-elimination for a 2 team tournament), with the winners of that going on to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.

The WCWS is structured essentially as two parallel double-elimination tournaments, but with some of the losses kicking the teams across to the other bracket.  The winners that emerge from the two brackets then play a best of three series for the championship.  It's an unusual overall tournament format, but I've grown to really enjoy it over the past few years.

Louisville starts play on Friday, the 15th at 5pm (EDT).

Lacrosse Honors

Four Louisville Lacrosse players were named to the All-West Region teams, which makes them eligible for All-American honors that will be announced on Monday the 18th.

Kaylin Morissette, was an All-American last year, and looks to be headed that way again in her Junior year with this first team selection.

Faye Brust, perhaps partly due to missing five games with a knee injury, was named to the second team, which makes it a bit more of a challenge for her to repeat as an All-American.

Co-Captain Cortnee Daley also earned the second team nod, and sophomore Hannah Koloski join Brust on the second team.

JMcA

Softball gets NCAA Bid...will face Kansas in Columbia, MO -- Monday Cardinal Couple

UofL faces Jayhawks Fri. in NCAA Regional


We're glad the NCAA didn't listen to us on our Saturday radio show.


We discussed the possibility of Louisville Softball getting an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and, although hopeful that they would...our general consensus was that we didn't think they would.

Or maybe they were listening and gave the Cards a bid just to make us look foolish (which isn't very hard to do and is something we're quite capable of accomplishing with no assistance). In any event, we're excited about the invite and it proves that: 

Long shots do come in.

Louisville is headed to the Columbia, MO. regional to appear in their 12th. straight NCAA Softball Tournament and will face the Kansas Jayhawks (38-13) on Friday at 5 p.m. ET in the first game of the four team regional. 

Missouri (39-14) and Indiana State (26-29) will also head to Columbia to take part in the three-day, double-elimination format that lead to the Super Regional. The Cards would head to the UCLA Super Regional if they can advance out of the Show-Me state.
  
Kansas finished 8-10 in the Big 12 Conference (they don't play a conference tournament) and took two out of three against Iowa St. in their season finale over the weekend. They are led in the circle by Alicia Pille (23-6) who carries a 2.90 ERA. 

The Cards (30-17) head into the NCAA tournament after losing to NC State in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Columbia, MO. is where senior outfielder Kelsi Jones played her first two years before transferring to Louisville.

The ACC got seven teams into the NCAA Tournament, an all-time high for the conference. Joining Louisville was Fla. State, UNC, NC State, Notre Dame, Pitt and Va. Tech

Congratulations to Louisville Softball and best of luck Friday against the Jayhawks! 

paulie
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