Softball faces Notre Dame in three game series -- Friday Cardinal Couple

 32-8 LOUISVILLE SOFTBALL TRAVELS TO SOUTH BEND

A crucial three game series with the Irish in South Bend begins today. 

It's a 5 p.m start and will be on the ACCNX broadcast network. Louisville hopes to keep pace with the three teams above them in the ACC standings and maybe even gain ground on them . 

Notre Dame is not having the best of seasons. They are 16-23 overall and 5-10 in the ACC. It's a "Strikeout for Cancer" weekend in the Melissa Cook Stadium on the South Bend campus

Notre Dame is 29-20 all-time against the Cards and have won six of the last nine matchups against the UofL squad. The Irish are led by Mickey Winchell, who is hitting .400 against the Cards in her Notre Dame career. 

Notre Dame is a fairly young squad, with just three seniors and one graduate student. They have no student-athletes from Kentucky, but 10 from California. The Irish have lost their last four games...three to league leading FSU in Tallahassee and one to Valparaiso in South Bend. . We'll have the results here for you tomorrow and the rest of the series on Saturday and Sunday . 

paulie

Softball Cards Fall to Notre Dame To End Regular Season -- ACC Softball Tournament Bracket -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 IRISH TAKE CARDS 9-1

Louisville Softball couldn't find the bats Sunday against Notre Dame, falling 9-1 to end the regular season and conference schedule. 

Louisville started the contest encouragingly, jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Korbe Otis drew a walk, was advanced by a Taylor Roby single and reached home on a Dylann Cravens single.

Notre Dame countered, though, touching the Cards for six runs on five hits and chasing Roby from the circle in the bottom of the second. The Cards were unable to get any more runs on the board the rest of the way, while the Irish added a score in the third and the game-ending  final two runs of the contest in the bottom of the sixth. Taja Felder finished the game in the circle for the Cards and allowed four hits in her four innings of work.

Louisville managed just three hits against N.D. hurler Shannon Becker, Carmyn Greenwood adding the other hit besides Roby and Cravens.

 

So, the Cards end the season with a 27-24 record overall and 10-14 in the ACC. They now go into the ACC Tournament as the #8 seed and will open their Tournament run on Wednesday, when they face #9 seed Syracuse at 1 p.m. The Cards did sweep the Orange when they faced in mid-April at Ulmer Stadium...8-0, 4-1 and 3-2. 

ACC SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

And, now, it's time for the "second" season. 

As mentioned above, Louisville opens play in the ACC Tournament Wednesday against the Orange in Pittsburgh. A 1 p.m. first pitch. The second game of the day features #7 seed Georgia Tech vs. #10 seed N.C. State....at approximately 3:30 p.m.

If the Cards get by Syracuse, they'd face #1 seed Virginia Tech on Thursday at 11 a.m. 

All of the 2022 ACC Tournament games will be shown on the ACC Tournament except for Sunday's finals...which will be shown on ESPN2. 

Other games on Thursday: 

#4 Notre Dame vs. #5 Clemson -- 1:30 p.m.

#2 Duke vs winner of Georgia Tech/N.C. State -- 5 p.m.

#3 Florida St. vs. #6 Virginia -- 7:30 p.m.

This time of year, it's win or go home. Let's hope our Softball Cards can put a five-game win streak together to get them the ACC Tournament title.  

Someone once said: "It's hard to talk about a two or three game win streak until you win that first one."  Time to get a win, Louisville. 

paulie

Softball Struggles at Notre Dame -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Softball

Sam Booe pitching in relief

A number of Louisvillians make it a point to get out of Louisville for Derby Day, and Softball is no exception.  The squad went north to 20th ranked Notre Dame, and dropped a pair of games, 5-0, and 5-1.

After inclement weather prevented play on Friday, the Cards and Irish made yesterday a double-header and will finish the three game series today.

In the first game, Taylor Roby started in the circle and pitched four innings and started the fifth inning before getting relief from Sam Booe.

Korbe Otis drawing the walk

Notre Dame played some small ball and took advantage of some fielding errors to get a pair across the plate in the 3rd inning.  A similar story in the 4th with the run getting around the field almost completely on mistakes by the UofL squad in the field.

Roby would be finished for the game, though not quite for the day, after a inning opening solo shot by Notre Dame.  As mentioned, Booe came in as relief at this point, and despite giving up a pair of walks in the inning prevented anything further.

Carmyn Greenwood at bat (that's a "7"
not a "1")

The Irish would finish their five runs in the game in the 6th inning, again with mostly small ball.

In the later game, the Cards would get a run across in the first inning, but that would be it.  It started out with Korbe Otis drawing a walk, getting to third on Taylor Roby's single, and scoring on Kendall Smith's ground out to first base.

Notre Dame would tie it up in the bottom of the second and then the scoring would go quiet until the bottom of the 5th.  More small ball and mistakes in the field would get another across the plate for the Irish.

Taja Felder in mid-hover-pitch

Taja Felder would get a couple of outs early in the 6th inning, but with a runner on 2nd and two outs the Irish would score a trio on a couple of singles and a fielding error.  It would be enough enough to sit Felder and let Roby enter to finish the final out of the game.

The Cards and Notre Dame will finish out their regular season schedule with the 2pm game on ACC Network.

Ally Alexander at shortstop

Special thanks to Ryan Greenwood for again supplying us with some away game photos, a special treat for us here at Cardinal Couple.  He's not just out there cheering his daughters, Carmyn and Cassady on, he also slings a pretty impressive DSLR.

WNBA

The WNBA has gotten their season underway with two days of games.  I'll be heading up to Indianapolis today with the family to watch the Fever's home opener against the Sparks.  We were, of course, originally expecting...hoping?...to see a trio of former Cards in this matchup, but WNBA roster sizes being what they are, we won't have the opportunity to watch Kianna Smith or Jaz Jones.  It's a shame, but it will be good to get a chance to see Emily Engstler play in a professional game.

Engstler played 16 minutes in the season opener against the Mystics, grabbed nine rebounds, stole a couple, and scored four.  On the Mystics side of the ball, another former Card, Myisha Hines-Allen scored nine, pulled down six rebounds, and had a trio of assists.

As we look around the rest of the WNBA at other Cardinal Alumnae, Angel McCoughtry is still recovering from another knee injury with the Lynx, but AD (Asia Durr) is back on the court, at least for limited minutes.  She played six minutes with the Liberty yesterday, but had no stat entries.

Dana Evans up in Chicago, is the big success of the weekend so far.  The Sky would go down to defeat in overtime, but Evans was only barely edged out by Emma Meesseman for the most time on the court for the Sky, but she would lead the team in scoring with 24 during her 35 minutes.  A pair of threes, 4-5 from the charity stripe, five assists, and four steals made for a very nice stat line indeed for Evans as she shows why she has earned that starting shooting guard position.

On tap for today, the Fever game that I'll be at with family at 3pm, you can find this one on Amazon Prime, on the Fever's page on Facebook, and Spectrum SportsNet apparently.  And then at 8pm, the Mystics and the Lynx will be on ESPN2.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The CCRHP was silent yesterday as the crew took the day off to celebrate Derby.  I must admit my level of "horse race junky", as Case put it yesterday, is, "Why do we have to interrupt this nice party to watch a horserace?"  I did have a good friend there that had Rich Strike across the board as one of her bets, so that's a nice bit of payout for her.

We'll be back next week with more joy and excitement about UofL women's sports!

Cardinals on the road -- KY Derby Weekend; FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

Happy Derby weekend to all.  I love this time of the year but is also means that we really are wrapping up the seasons and the school year as many are celebrating graduations and Mothers Day, as well.  

Let's just hope for some sunny skies and wins at the track and for the Cards!  For good reason, UofL athletics typically hits the road on Derby weekend.  

SOFTBALL

Louisville at #20 Notre Dame

Melissa Cook Stadium

ACC Network 5 p.m. 

The Cards are scheduled for a 5 p.m. first pitch Friday, 1 p.m. Saturday and 2 p. m. on Sunday. 

Bringing in a 27-21 overall record, 10-11 in the ACC, the Cardinals wrap up the regular season with a weekend series against #20 ranked Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish bring in a 5 game winning streak and a 36-9 overall record but they haven't played since April 26th.  ND stands 4th in the ACC at 13-5 with their conferences loses being to Virginia (2), Georgia Tech and Clemson (2).

Notre Dame’s offense is led by sophomore first baseman Karina Gaskins. Gaskins leads the ACC with a .442 average, hitting 11 doubles, 11 home runs and driving in a conference-best 55 runs. Freshman Jane Kronenberger worked her way into the starting lineup and is hitting at a .400 average, playing in 32 games, making 22 starts. She’s third on the team with 27 RBI, hitting nine doubles and three home runs. The outfield trio of Abby Sweet, Emma Clark and Leea Hanks are all hitting .371 or above, and combined have 11 home runs, nine triples, 31 doubles, 42 stolen bases and have scored 140 runs.

The trio of Alexis Holloway, Payton Tidd and Shannon Becker have thrown all the innings for the Irish this season. Senior pitcher Tidd and Grad. Senior pitcher Holloway earned ACC honors in back to back weeks 4/12 and 4/19. Tidd has worked as the series opener owning a 2.58 ERA and a team-best 14 wins, eight complete games and 119.1 innings of work. Holloway has thrown two no-hitters on the year, while earning a 2.92 ERA and 13 wins. She’s started a team-high 18 games while throwing 103.0 innings. Combined the trio have held opponents to a .228 average against.

Notre Dame leads the series with the Cards 23-17. The last time the two teams met was in 2019. Notre Dame won two out of three games in South Bend, sweeping a doubleheader by scores of 9-1 in each game. Louisville won 5-3 in the series finale.

Entering her 20th season as leader of the Notre Dame softball program, Deanna Gumpf continues to ascend the ladder as one of the nation’s premier head coaches.

ACC SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

As it stands on Thursday evening, the Cards should qualify for the 7th seed in the ACC Tournament which is next week, May 11-14 at Vartabedian Field in Pittsburgh, PA.  A sweep over the Irish and the Cards would tie Virginia in the standings while Notre Dame is chasing Florida State and going for the sweep on Senior Weekend. FSU is visiting NC State looking for cushion from the Irish's hunt. 

A couple squads at the top of the conference have already wrapped up their regular season as they look ahead to the tournaments -- Virginia Tech, Clemson and Virginia.   Georgia Tech has finished 11-13 in the ACC and await to see what the Cards can do this weekend or if they will jump UofL in the conference standings. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast -- With the local holiday, the gang is also taking Saturday off from the podcast to spend time celebrating.   I plan on picking my Oaks and Derby winners 30 minutes before 'They're Off!!' each day. If you want some suggestions on who to bet on, go to Paulie Picks. 

As Always - Go Cards 

~Daryl 

Louisville women's basketball -- Hines-Allen, Durr WBCA Honorable Mention All-Americans -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDINAL DUO TWO OF 42 ON LIST


The awards keep rolling in for Louisville women's basketball's Myisha Hines-Allen and Asia Durr. 

They were named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association honorable mention list yesterday. They were two of nine ACC players who received the honor. The 10-player All-American team featured two ACC players...Alexis Peterson (Syracuse) and Brianna Turner (Notre Dame)

Durr is coming off one of the better seasons that a Cardinal has had recently. Her 119 three-pointers established a new high mark in the Cardinal record books. She is also now fourth in points a season (692) and points per game (19.2) at Louisville. The Douglasville, GA sophomore joined the 1,000 point club earlier in the year. Durr also led Louisville in steals with 46. Her 233 field goals ranked sixth all-time for a season. 

Hines-Allen averaged 13.9 points per game for Jeff Walz. She narrowly missed 50% shooting in the campaign and was close to double-digit rebounding on the year with 9.3. With 336 rebounds, she takes over third place for most in a season Her 19 double-doubles equaled a  Louisville high for a season. Angel McCoughtry achieved that goal twice in her career at Louisville. The Montclair, NJ native is now sixth all-time at UofL in field goals and rebounds. 

Unfortunately, Mariya Moore was not selected for the squad. The third integral part of the Cards "Big Three" was third in scoring for the Cards. 

Your quiz for this Tuesday is: 

Which of these players was not selected for the first team? 

Kelsey Mitchell (Ohio State)
Gabby Williams (UConn) 
Kelsey Plum (Washington) 
Rebecca Greenwell (Duke)

(Answer at the end of today's column...) 


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SOFTBALL SLOSHES PAST IRISH 7-4

In a contest that was delayed by a 96 minute rain and lightning threat in the area, Louisville Softball won the final game at Ulmer Stadium in the series against Notre Dame 7-4. 

Maryssa Becker fired the complete game for the games, improving her record to 16-6 on the season. 

The Cards struck early against the Irish with two runs in the first inning. Jamie (The New Pride of New Egypt, NJ) Soles drove home Caitlin Ferguson and then scored on a Nicole "Poof" Pufahl sacrifice fly. 

ESPNU kept showing Nicole's dad Robert out on the berm watching the contest. Someone should have run an umbrella out to the proud papa. Also, CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR regular Jared Anderson (River City Cards) was prominently featured in the broadcast...behind home plate, cheering and occasionally wiping the rain off his glasses. 

The Cards appreciated the fan efforts of the two still there...the crowd largely vacating and leaving Ulmer virtually empty after the downpour.  ND's Caitlin Brooks tied the even in the fourth with a two-run "touch 'em all" off Becker. Louisville, undaunted....regained the lead when Pufahl sent Mr. Spalding to the Avenue of Champions in the bottom of the inning for a solo blast. 

With the passing showers, there were also lot of passed balls/wild pitches coming out of the circle when the Irish were occupying it. A walk and two wild pitches got Morgan "Moe" Meyer to the plate in the fifth. In the sixth, two hits, a walk and two wild pitches accounted for three more Louisville runs. Alison "Mike, Mike, Mike" Szydlowski drove in "Poof" and a wild pitch got Tiarra "Dive" Sanabria and Szyd home to set the tally at 7-2 Cards. 

Notre Dame added two in the top of the seventh. Sara White (What? What is a former Cardinal WBB coach and color commentator doing playing for the Irish?) and Maddie McCracken (named after one of the top Derby contenders this year) met home plate...but a diving stop and then body lunge to the bag by Sanabria at first ended the contest. 

Louisville heads to Boston College next for a three game weekend series. 


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MEEKS, HICKS TAKE HEELS TO TITLE

North Carolina is your 2017 Men's NCAA Basketball champion. At least I think they are. The second half took so painfully long to finish...I may have fallen asleep and just dreamed it. 

Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks...two names Cardinal MBB fans know quite painfully well...led the late charge in the 71-65 win for Ol' Roy (Dadgummit) and the Tar Heels. 

This was exciting at the end but most of it was painful to watch. The refs made the second half a long and solemn procession with whistles. No momentum could really be established by either team. 

Gonzaga had their chances but a long, cold shooting streak hindered their final effort. 

52 free throws in this one. We all watch, of course, to watch refs call fouls. 

Redemption is yours, UNC. Even if 2/3rd of America fell asleep while your were trying to obtain it. 


(Answer to the quiz is "D" Rebecca Greenwell. She did get honorable mention honors but not first team.)

(written between yawns after a late night) 
paulie
xxxxx

Basketball, Softball

Basketball Championship

Congratulations to Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks for winning the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament.  South Carolina took the lead in the 2nd quarter, but really pulled away from Mississippi State late in the 4th to win the championship game 67-55.

I had the pleasure of watching Dawn Staley coach at her previous gig at Temple University, where she was clearly a great coach, but working in a program that either wouldn't, or couldn't, put forth the resources to support the team's progression.  When it was announced that she was taking the South Carolina head coaching position, I had a suspicion that she was headed for great success.

The SEC had the championship locked up, of course, by having both teams in the championship game being SEC teams.  There was some discussion on twitter about the absence of Morgan "Itty Bitty" William in the 4th quarter for Mississippi State, with many thinking it was just an issue of a bad matchup.

Softball

Nicole "The Poof" Pufahl was the star of the 2nd game of the Louisville vs Notre Dame series this
weekend, but it wasn't enough as the Cards fell to the Irish 6-4.  Defensive struggles can be pointed to as the 'cause of the loss, with the Cards chalking up 4 errors in the game.

Overall, the scoring in this one came late, the Cards picked up a run in the 1st inning, when Caitlin Ferguson got on base with a walk, advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Maryssa Becker, and scored on a Pufahl single.  No other runs would score in the game until the Irish put up 3 in the 4th inning, 2 more in the 5th, and another in the 6th.

The Cards clawed one back in the 6th with a lead-off home-run by Pufahl.

An exciting, but disappointing, finish to this one, when back-to-back two-out walks put Becker and Jamie Soles ("The New Pride of New Egypt, New Jersey") on base to score on a double by, who else, Pufahl.  Another walk to Tiarra Sanabria put the tieing runner on base.  Alison "Mike" Szydlowski came to the plate, and hit a strong shot out to left center on a full-count 9th pitch.  A great play, and great foot speed, by the left fielder for Notre Dame ended the game.

The 3rd game of the series is tonight at 7pm.  Notre Dame has already won the series, but both games have been close, and UofL will be looking to make a statement by taking one back.

-- JMcA

Final Four, Softball and Comeford...FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

IS IT ANOTHER UCONN CORONATION THIS WEEKEND? 

Best mascot duo in the NCAA

We've come to the epoch and pinnacle of the women's college basketball season -- The Final Four. Four teams have survived the challenges, done the deeds and are currently on four-game win streaks in the tournament. The quest, of course, is to win your final six games of the year. Let's look at the participants. 

UCONN.  Is this another UConn coronation and Geno Invitational? The Huskies have certainly done nothing wrong in getting to Dallas. They did, if you recall, beat Mississippi State by 60 last year in the regional final. This is, though, an almost completely different UConn team than the Stewie, Moriah and Morgan bunch that delivered that beat-down. Katie Lou Samuelson, Gabby Williams, Napheesa Collier and Kia Nurse are the lead dogs in Geno's Husky sled and, although I don't forsee another 60 point romp across the tundra over the Bulldogs...it's not hard to see UConn winning a highly competitive game in this dog versus dog matchup and earning a Sunday berth in the final.  

MISS ST.  We all know how good Victoria Vivians is. The height factor definitely in the Bulldog camp with 6'7" Teaira McCowan and 6'5" Chinwe Okorie. Morgan William wowed college basketball with her 41-point spree against Baylor and won a lot of hearts with her emotional post-game interview. The key for them is getting the ball to the explosive guards and the bigs being on hand for any mop-up or putback work needed. You win the game by scoring the most points, right? The Bulldogs would like to see a high scoring affair here and this probably isn't going to be an intense defensive battle. 

THE PICK: Let's go with......drum roll, please.....UConn in a close win, maybe less than five points. 

STANFORD.  The West Coast representative gets it done by playing team basketball. Gone are the days of Candice Wiggins, Jane Appel and the Ogwumike sisters. This team had had six different leading scorers throughout the season. Yes, there is a Samuelson here also. Katie's older sister Karlie. Erica McCall and Brittany McPhee are the leading scorers and will do battle with the impressive South Carolina paint dwellers. Here's the thing about The Cardinal. Don't cont them out if they fall behind. They came back from a 16 point deficit in the second half to win against Notre Dame and they have trailed  by at least seven in five out of their last six games. 

"We're playing in THAT region? Again?"

SOUTH CAROLINA.  When Alana Coates went down with her season-ending injury...a lot of people put the Gamecocks chances of a Final Four bid on the bench as well. Someone, however, forgot to tell A'ja Wilson and Kaela Davis that they were supposed to stop winning. Some will argue the USC had the easiest path to the Final Four...with games against UNC Asheville, Arizona St., Quinnapiac and Florida St. Maybe so, but they won the games, they survived and advanced and they had to do the last two 2637 miles away from their campus.

I will tell you that this game just may come down to how well guards Allisha Gray and freshman Tyasha Harris play. This is a great contest that puts two very successful and demanding coaches in Dawn Staley and Tara VanDerveer up against each other.


THE PICK: South Carolina grabs an early lead and then fights to hold onto it late. Kaela Davis is on a mission and she guides to 'Cocks past the Trees. South Carolina by three. 

Speaking of coaches and women, check out this interesting read about women and coaching :  Numbers in women's coaching plummeting



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SOFTBALL STARTS THREE GAME SERIES WITH NOTRE DAME SATURDAY. 

We're previewing this series a bit early because tomorrow we hope to present you with an exclusive interview with future Card LORETTA KAKALA. 

The Cards and Irish square off for a three-game series at Ulmer Stadium that will feature coverage on the ACC Network Extra and ESPN on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Notre Dame (17-13) is in the midst of a five game win streak that saw them triumphant over Michigan State, Eastern Michigan and sweeping Virginia Tech in a three-game series. The Irish ae 4-5 in ACC play. 

Louisville (20-8) enters after defeating Indiana 2-1 Wednesday night. The Cards have a 4-0 record in the ACC...second best to Florida State's 12-0 conference mark. The Seminoles are having a super season at 32-1-1. 

The rain today should be long gone by Saturday and the forecast shows temperatures in the high sixties-low seventies for Saturday and Sunday...with a slight chance of rain Monday. 


Louisville will look to the hot bats of Jamie Soles (.370), Nicole Pufahl (.358) and Maryssa Becker (.321) to get them past an Irish pitching staff that features Rachel Nasland (9-5) and has a combined ERA of 3.58. In the circle, the Cards will hope Becker (15-5) can continue her strong performance against the Hoosiers against these other Indiana natives. 




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COMERFORD GETS ACC AWARD

Sophomore Mallory Comeford has made a big splash (sorry about the pun) in her two years as a Cardinal swimmer. She's an NCAA Champion and is now also the ACC swimmer of the Year. 

She was Freshman of the Year last year. We see a trend here. 

The sophomore made history at the NCAA Championships when she tied for first in the 200 freestyle. She had six other podium finishes, earning her All-America honors at the meet, and recorded two new conference records. At ACC Championships, Comerford had two first, two second and a third place finish


paulie
xxxxx

TAYLOR JOHNSON TRANSFERRING TO LOUISVILLE...SOFTBALL SPLITS WITH IRISH -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

5'7" GUARD WILL HAVE ONE YEAR AT LOUISVILLE

Taylor Johnson, a 5'7" guard from Frankfort, IL who spent three seasons at Loyola (Chicago) has transferred to the Louisville women's basketball program and will be immediately available to play for the Cards. 

Following a weekend visit to the campus, Taylor put up this notification on social media Sunday night:

royalt_tay25 Soo excited to be apart of a new FAMILY at the Unversity of Louisville. Made it official today. Really looking forward to this new opportunity!

Johnson averaged 15 points a game for the Ramblers last season. One of her highlight games was a 24 point effort on 12/21/15 8 in a 88-75 win over DePaul. 

Guard depth was one of the things that Louisville could have used a bit more of as they went down the stretch in the final part of the 2015-16 season. With Taja Cole gone and no Dakota Weatherford listing on the 2016-17 roster, Johnson will be in the mix for starting time and significant minutes for the Cards.

With Loretta Kakala committing to the Cards on Saturday, it was a busy and fruitful weekend for Walz. Recruiting never stops, according to the Louisville women's basketball head coach, but maybe he'll take a little time to slow down and relax this week and take in a few Derby festivities. 

Welcome to the Ville, Taylor! 

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SOFTBALL SPLITS SUNDAY IN SOUTH BEND

Louisville Softball split with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a double-headed in South Bend...losing the first contest 8-7 and winning the finale 8-3. 

The Irish got to Louisville starting pitcher Maryssa Becker in the opener and broke open a 3-3 tie with scores in the fifth and sixth innings to take a 8-3 lead on the Cards as Louisville traveled to the plate in the top of the 7th inning.

Spurred by a two-run homer by Hailey Smith the Cards battled back to cut the lead to 8-7 but couldn't get the tying run across. 

In the second contest, the Cards got a strong performance from freshman Megan Hensley in the circle and relief work from Becker to take a 8-3 win. Smith continued her hot streak at the bat with 3 for 4 hitting, and the Cards broke open a close 4-3 contest in the sixth inning with five hits and a walk to grab a 8-3 lead. Becker provided a two-RBI single in the turnaround inning and kept the Irish at bay the final 1 2/3 innings and Hensley got her 14th.win of the season for UofL.

Louisville (33-12, 14-6) ends the regular season and ACC schedule with a trip Derby weekend to Tallahassee for a 3 game series with league-leading Florida State.

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THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

Missed the last edition of The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour? No need to worry or fret...it's available on the Crescent Hill Soundcloud. 

A fun show with plenty of Walz speak, our final Derby analysis and Sam Draut and Paulie discuss softball and lacrosse also! 

LINK: THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 4/30/16

paulie
xxxxx

LORETTA KAKALA A CARD!...LOUISVILLE SOFTBALL DOUBLEHEADER TODAY...THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

LORETTA KAKALA COMMITS TO WBB

6'3 post Loretta Kakala visited the UofL campus over the weekend and has committed to the Cards...Jeff Walz's first commitment for the 2017 class. 

Out of Manteca, CA...she averaged 16 points a game last season and grabbed 8.5 rebounds. 

She is ranked 21st. in the Prospectsnation.com recruiting list for the 2017 class and 26th. by ESPN. She also competes in the shot put and discus in high school...which will undoubtedly draw comparison references with Emmonnie Henderson. 

Taylor Johnson, a red-shirt junior out of Loyola Chicago, is also expected to visit the campus. She has been granted her release from Loyola and would have one year of eligibility remaining

Good work, Coach and welcome to the Ville, Loretta! 

CARDS, IRISH PLAY TWO AT 11 A.M.

Weather in the South Bend area necessitated the cancellation of softball between UofL and UND yesterday and the teams will try to get in two today with an 11 a.m. start planned. 

The cancelled game won't be made up. Today's action can be viewed on ESPN3 and be sure to follow tweets here at the site about the action.  

Louisville has a 13-5 ACC record and the Irish are 10-5...so two wins for either squad would give them a nice foothold on second place in the conference.

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THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

Promoted from intern to columnist at Cardinal Couple! 

A fun show yesterday on THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR with Paulie and Sam Draut in studio. We discussed lacrosse, softball, sampled the Jeff Walz press conference earlier in the week and played the final handicapping segment for the Kentucky Derby...a mere seven days away now.

You can hear the rebroadcast at the link provided below or you can go the the Crescent Hill Radio website and find it there. 

LINK: https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20160430

Softball travels to Notre Dame...THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

PEARSALL'S CARDS ENTER CRUCIAL SERIES VS. NOTRE DAME




           ****** Schedule Update******

Due to weather concerns in the South Bend area, the teams will try to get in a single game today at 6 p.m. and a double-header tomorrow starting at noon. 

The University of Louisville softball squad is in South Bend, IN today for a very important three-game series against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish team that will have major implications on second place in the ACC.

Louisville (32-11, 13-5) are percentage points ahead of the Irish (36-8, 10-5) in the current standings. Notre Dame is ranked either 18th (ESPN/USA Softball) or 19th(USA Today/NFCA Coaches) polls, while the Cards are receiving votes but not ranked in the top 25 in either. 

Louisville enters the doubleheader today after a mid-week loss to Kentucky 2-1 Wednesday night at Ulmer Stadium. The Cards took a 1-0 lead into the top of the seventh in a contest that had a 54 minute rain delay...but the Cats capitalized on three Cardinal errors and got two hits to take the lead and win the affair. 

Notre Dame also stepped out of conference earlier in the week and shut out DePaul 8-0. Leading the way for UND is Karley Wester who has produced a .454 batting average and has scored 51 runs. She also has 36 stolen bases. Caitlin Brooks has slugged 10 home runs for the Irish. In the circle, Allie Rhodes has compiled a 17-5 record and averages a strikeout per inning. 

Pearsall will look for consistency and avoidance of late-game miscues from the Cards as they look to maintain their second place status in the ACC.

The contests will be on ESPN 3. First pitch today is 1 p.m. and the second game will be shown about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the opener. Sunday's single game starts at noon. We'll offer a preview of the games today on THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR and a full recap of the action in our Sunday column. Go Cards and stay away rain! 

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THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

WE have a wonderful broadcast lined up for you today on THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR starting at 11 a.m. this morning. While Worldwide Jeff McAdams completes his boat tour of Europe...Sam Draut, our CARDINAL COUPLE intern and sports editor for THE CARDINAL student newspaper will be in studio with me as we review softball, lacrosse and comment on the nearly 30 minute Jeff Walz press conference from Thursday.

Sam also stars in a moving YOU TUBE parody that covers the end of his reign as sports editor at the newspaper. Based on the Derek Jeter farewell tribute...Sam covers the UofL campus in one final lap and some pretty interesting things develop.


LINK BELOW

https://youtu.be/ae1HOwaXmXY 


We'll also air the final segment of the Churchill Downs Derby picks from some of the most astute and knowledgeable handicappers under the Twin Spires. 

You'll want to have your pen and pad ready to take down what these eight prognosticators think will happen on the first Saturday in May. We had a little fun with them and assigned each of them an alias. There is some very revealing information here as we are now eight days away from the fastest two minutes in sports.

The replay is up...listen to it here at the link below

LINK: THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR REBROADCAST 4/30/16

paulie
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Monday CARDINAL COUPLE -- Hoops, Lacrosse take wins on Sunday

MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Career high for Henderson key in WBB 82-66 win

- Lacrosse shows mercy on Detroit Mercy 18-1

- Softball gets slammed by Irish 11-4

Louisville's WBB head coach Jeff Walz will take Sunday's win in Memphis. He's pleased over 'E' getting a career high 19 points in the 16 point win. Happy about the 14-2 start to begin the second half that pushed the Cards from a 41-30 halftime lead to a 53-32 advantage four minutes into the final period.

But there is room for improvement.

"In the second half, we get a stop and we go down and score. That's what we have to do, but we need to become more consistent."

Pleased as he was with Henderson's best game as a Card, Walz also indicated there was still more work to do in the post:

"Offensively, she (Henderson) is talented...but she got to be able to learn to do more than just shoot. And, you can't turn it over five times."

The trio of "E", A-Tayy and the Hammer had 12 of the Cards 20 turnovers...a number too high for Walz who added:

"They don't touch the ball enough to turn it over that much."

Henderson was joined in double figures by Shoni (18 pts.) and Taylor (13 points).

Memphis made a point of bottling up Shoni early in the game...still mindful of her nine three-pointers against them the last time the teams played. They also got strong play in the paint from Pa'Sonna Hope (18 points). The guard combo of Ariel Hearn and Mooriah Rowser added 35 points for the Tigers (11-15, 4-10)...who drew a season high of 2585 for the game. A strong contingent of Louisville fans and native Americans were present to cheer on the Cards and the Schimmel sisters 


The game also featured the first season appearance of Starr Breedlove...who has been out the entire season with concussion-related symptoms. The sophomore guard saw three minutes, hit a couple of free throws, dished an assist and committed a couple of fouls in end-of-the-game play.

The Cards shot 54.2% for the game and went 8-18 from the distance. The 32 made goals were set up by 21 assists.

Sara Hammond played just nine minutes...plagued by foul trouble and watched Henderson's assimilation of the post. Bria Smith did return to action after sitting the last two contests....scoring five points and grabbing three boards.

Louisville returns to the KFC YUM! Center for a Wednesday, 7 p.m. tilt with cellar dweller Houston.

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Louisville Lacrosse got a career-high six goals from Kaylin Morissette and rolled out to a 12-1 first half advantage in downing University of Detroit 18-1 Sunday afternoon before an appreciative, if bit chilly, crowd at the UofL Lacrosse Stadium.

The Cards netted five goals in the first five minutes of action, evoking my remark to CARDINAL COUPLE columnist Jeff McAdams that we were on a goal-per-minute production and the final score could turn out 60-0.

The Cards were a bit more lenient on the offensive attack the rest of the way, working on positioning, passing and stifling defense...holding the Titans to just two shots per half while amassing a total of 42 shots on the harried UD goalie.

Nikki Boltja and Cortnee Daley scored three goals each for the Cards...eight Cardinals scored in the rout.

Coach Young was pleased with the effort:

"We got better today than we did in the game against Duke and I was proud of the transition game and the way we played. The offense was more controlled and we made some huge adjustments. It's just awesome when you can get that many attackers involved in the game and to put the ball in the back of the net."  

The LAX crew hits the road next...making a Virginia tour with a Friday game against Old Dominion and Sunday against William & Mary.

I had a nice post-game chat with the Detroit Lacrosse SID who filled me in on the history of the name Detroit Mercy. Seems the University of Detroit and a small women's college named Mercy merged 25 years ago to create Detroit Mercy.

He indicated that most people just referred to them as Detroit. The Titans play in the American Sun conference and will have eight teams on board for conference play in 2015. Dick Vitale is probably the most famous figure associated with the school...he was a head coach of the basketball team there before terrorizing the airwaves.

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Louisville softball ended a dismal stay (except for the weather) in Jacksonville...losing to Notre Dame 11-4 Sunday morning.

The Irish pounded Louisville and Rachel LeCoq for seven first inning runs and the game was pretty much over from then on. The Cards did spark a little flame with three runs in the bottom of the second...but drop to 4-5 on the season after going 1-3 in Jacksonville.

Louisville returns home for the Cardinal Classic (Feb 21-23) at Ulmer Stadium with NKU, EKU, IUPUI and Central Michigan visiting.

paulie
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