WCWS Championship, Dana Evans & CHI Sky @ INDY This Weekend; FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

GOOOOOOOOOOOOD Friday morning Louisville and Cardinal Couple readers ! 

She's back on the personal keyboard this week checking in with the Cardinal Couple faithful after quite the hiatus, and I appreciate the rest of the CC team stepping up in my absence.  I did get the chance to unplug and relax on the beach for a week but it was sandwiched between an ACC Softball Championship with the ACC network and two back to back home-stands down at Slugger field.

Just a whooole lot of button pushing going on between the desk job during the day & the sports stuff in the evenings.  And of course when I'm not on a clock, I'm at home pushing the boyfriend's buttons every chance I get...

Anywho, I am glad that it's mid-June and there's a couple things I can talk about.

Women's College World Series 

Firstly, I hope you got the chance to tune into the Women's College World Series over the past week.  I did miss Day One where JMU stunned the softball world and beat both 'home teams' Oklahoma and Oklahoma State... but i did obsessively watch the rest up until Thursday's Game 3 of the Championship between OU and Florida State.

 
I was absolutely thrilled that no super blue team was in OKC.  UCLA doesn't count.  I was rooting for the Bruins to repeat as Champs.  We had a very maroon 'Final Four' and witnessed some historic and downright "bad-a$$" performances and plays. 

"Shout out to me? Well, a shout out 
right back at ya, Daryl !" 

Shout out to Montana Fouts for the perfect game.  The KY native celebrated her 21st birthday with an epic performance in the circle.  Shout out to JMU's Odicci Alexander for the game winning play at the plate.. the fifth year senior gave the game her ALL.  The play of Mackenzie Donihoo of OU also stands out in my mind.  She had excellent at bats which often resulted in a hit and/or a run...and her efforts on defense when she was diving for fair and foul balls out in left field...were fun to watch. She also made sure to keep the crowd hyped in between pitches. 

The 2021 WCWS was a glorious event filled with everything at its best.  I do believe this was the first event with a full capacity crowd for the USA since COVID restrictions have lifted?  It was loud and it was beautiful, rain delays and all.

After it was all said and done, the Oklahoma Sooners were crowned the 2021 champions after a dominating game 3 performance.  It is the fifth title for the Sooners in program history, all under HC Patty Gasso, the last one coming in 2017. After falling to FSU in game one The Sooners battled back in game 2 and 3 to take the title back to campus, 25 miles down the road from HOF Stadium.

 

The CCRHP gang was upset with me cutting off the championship talk in our group chat because I was recording it to watch after work... But I think we were all in agreement that we were not rooting for the Seminoles to dog-pile for the trophy. 

OU homered in the first and second inning and put up a 3 spot in the third to make it a 5-1 victory for the Sooners.  Danielle Watson took the "L' . The former Cardinals pitcher gave up back-to-back "touch-em-alls" in the second inning and that was enough for the Sooners to win, but more OU scores were to come. 

Bye, bye, Noles...

The Seminoles' lone run was scored an RBI double but it was a very high pop up lost in the sun in the shallow 1st/2nd base area.  Sooners ace Giselle Juarez allowed one run on two hits on Thursday afternoon and was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. The left-hander allowed four runs in 31 1/3 innings.  Fittingly, the last out was a very short pop up into her glove.

Game over.

It was a dominating day for Oklahoma. 

 

DANA EVANS - Chicago Sky at Indiana Fever this weekend!

After the Fever visited the Sky in Chicago on Wednesday evening, the Sky will follow the bus back to Indy to face the Fever for a Saturday afternoon rematch.

The game is scheduled to tipoff at 1p.m.

The Sky downed Indy 92-76 in that previous meeting, Dana Evans had 9 points, 1 assist and a rebound in 12 minutes on the floor. 

I have a feeling she's just getting settled into her new role in Chicago... the place she probably should've gone to to begin with.  It just so happens that I planned on heading to Indianapolis Saturday afternoon... coincidence? We will find out... 

So I am tentative for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast for Saturday.  

The Indy trip is confirmed.. the game, is a maybe.  A really want to maybe, though.  I definitely intend on catching some WNBA games in Indy at some point.  

Have a great Friday y'all.  Wear your sunscreen & tip the bartenders. 

Go Cards! 

~Daryl 

Myisha, Mystics master Minnesota -- FSU pounds Oklahoma in WCWS -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

MYSTICS 85 - MINNESOTA 81

Myisha Hines-Allen had 18 points last night and Washington put together a 53-38 advantage over the Minnesota Lynx last night in the second and third quarters to down the visiting Lynx. 

As it is with Washington, if Tina Charles has a big game, the Mystics do pretty well, and the former UConn Husky great didn't disappoint the home crowd with 31 points. The two were part of a four-playerd double digit point effort that improved Washington to 3-5 and dropped Minnesota to 3-5.

A 27-18 third quarter edge put DC in the drivers seat 70-56 and they were able to hold on, despite a late rally by the visitors to get the win. 

Guard play is always key in a team's success and Washington got a good effort last night from Ariel Atkins (17 pts.) and Natasha Cloud (11 points) to contribute to the win. 

Charles has had four 30 point plus games this season and leads the WNBA with 25.1 ppg. She's also shooting 48% from the floor. It makes one wonder just how good the Mystics might be if they had Elena Della Donne in the lineup. She's taking things day-to-day, though and hasn't set a date for her comeback.  It also raises the question of how Washington will handle things when she does. Will it put Hines-Allen on the benc h as a reserve, or will Washington play the trio of Charles, Della Donne and Hines-Allen as starters and sit Shavonte Zellous?  

Washington remains home for their next contest, when they bring in the LA Sparks (4-3) Thursday night. 

FSU 8 -- OKLAHOMA 4 

The first game in the WCWS Finals took place last night in Oklahoma City and it was Florida State often and early, bombarding the Sooners 8-4/ 

FSU held a 7-0 lead after the top of the fourth -- a five-run inning helped that explosion -- and I was beginning to wonder if this one might get run ruled. Ex UofL pitcher Danielle Watson  wasn't getting battered by Sooner bats yet and FSU seemed to be having a field day against OU hurler Nicole May. 

The Sooners weren't quite ready to stop playing for the night, though. They went back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the fourth against Watson and added two more in the bottom of the sixth to chase Watson from the circle and make it 7-4. 

Kat Sandercock came in to pitch and to save the day for the ACC school, though, and the Noles picked up a top of the seventh inning run to double the score and take the contest. 

It's interesting to note that each time this year OU has lost a game, the losing streak has stopped there. It happened early in the season against Georgia and most recently in the WCWS against James Madison. A two-game losing streak this time of year equates to your season being over, so the pressure is on the Sooners tonight to "even it up".

We also learned more about the "catcher interference" call by an umpire that most of us knew last night. When the catcher puts her knee down before catching the ball, that does constitute as blocking the plate without possession of the ball. Thus, the obstruction call comes into play.

The runner has to be given an opportunity to reach the plate, and in this case with the knee down without the ball, that is why obstruction was charged to the catcher.

OU came into the WCWS as the #1 seed and now have a 54-4 record. The Noles are 49-11-1 as the #10 seed and the tie came against our Louisville Softball squad -- a matter of travel arrangements necessitating FSU leave Ulmer and head to the airport. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

paulie 

  

Cardinal Couple Thursday

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-WCWS KICKS INTO GEAR IN OKLAHOMA CITY

-WOLNY AND KELLER NAMED ALL-AMERICANS

(Columnist Jeff McAdams isn't talking about Julie Hermann today. He looks
at the Women's College World Series today. Just as well, some journalist
in Jersey will probably break news that Julie Hermann puts strawberries in her
bowl of Cheerios or she refused the automatic transmission fluid check eight
years ago when she had the oil changed in her car. Play Ball!)




As we reach the end of May, topics in women's athletics are getting to be slim pickings.

No, I won't be writing another opinion piece about whether Rutgers should stand by their hiring of Julie Hermann, or whether its reasonable to expect someone to remember being in a wedding from 15 years ago of someone that long ago ceased being a part of one's life.  Frankly, my interest in this as a media story has waned far faster than, it seems, the media's has.

There is, however, a women's athletics event that I will be trying to keep track of that starts today.  The Women's College World Series (WCWS) kicks off today in Oklahoma City with four games on the schedule.

Women's College World Series

The WCWS is played as two separate, four team, double-elimination brackets, then a best of three series between the two winners of the brackets.  This somewhat mirrors the Regional and Super-Regional structure of the broader portion of the overall tournament where four teams compete in a double-elimination bracket to advance to a Super-Regional with another Regional winner in a best of three series.

Play kicks off at noon between 11th seed Washington taking on 14th seed Nebraska.  Both teams upset higher seeds in their Super-Regionals to advance to the WCWS, which means they both spent the past weekend on the road.  The winner plays tomorrow in the 7:00pm game against the winner of the 2:30pm, #7 Tennessee vs #2 Florida game.  Both Tennessee and Florida were the higher seeds in their Super-Regional (Florida beat UAB who came out of the Louisville Regional), so they have the benefit of having played at home the past weekend, and as such may be slightly better rested.  The losers of these games move to the elimination half of the bracket and will play each other Saturday at noon.  Other games in this bracket include another elimination game (winner of the Saturday noon game, vs the loser of tomorrow's 7pm game), the winner of that game meets up with the remaining undefeated team Sunday at 1pm, and if the team that came from the elimination half of the bracket wins, the "if necessary" game will be Sunday evening at 7:00pm.

The other bracket starts this evening with a 7pm game between #5 Arizona State (who defeated UK 2-0 in the Super-Regional matchup) with #4 Texas.  The nightcap is at 9:30 between 8 seed Michigan, and top seed (and prohibitive favorite) Oklahoma.  All of these teams were the higher seed in their Super-Regionals, so all got to sleep in their own beds last weekend.  The winners of these two games play Friday at 9:30pm.  The first elimination game would be Saturday at 2:30pm.  The second elimination game will take place Saturday evening at 9:30pm.  The elimination side of the bracket meets back up with the undefeated team Sunday at 3:30pm.  The "if necessary" game is scheduled for 9:30pm, though one wonders if the "if necessary" game would go at 7:00pm if the other bracket didn't need to play its "if necessary" game.

The winners of these two brackets, will then play a best of three series with games on Monday and Tuesday, and an "if necessary" happening Wednesday.

All games are on ESPN and ESPN2.

After this is all over?  Well, its a long time until mid-August when volleyball gets into pre-season matches.

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Alicja Wolny and Katie Keller have been recognized for their contributions to Louisville
Softball by being named to the NFCA All-American second team. They are the seventh and eighth
players in Louisville Softball history to receive such an honor. Lacy Wood (2006), Kristen Wadwell (2009) Melissa Roth (2009, 2010) Tori Collins (2012) and Taner Fowler (2012) are also alumnae of
this prestigious award.

The Big Wol ready to send
one over the fence.

Wolny, a senior first baseman from El Dorado Hills, CA. led the Cards with a .423 batting average this season and had 11 fence clearer's. Keller, a junior second baseman...led the Cards in batting most of the season before finishing with a .402 average. She did lead the squad with 12 round-trippers.

Louisville (47-13) ended up #12 in the ESPN.com/USA Collegiate Poll and in the USA Today/NFCA coaches' poll.

Louisville has Keller, Taner Fowler, Hannah Kiyohara, Kayla Soles, Maggie Ruckenbrod, Ally Vaughn, Brittany Sims, Whitney Arion and eight talented new Cardinals arriving on campus this fall, Jordan Trimble is listed as a red-shirt junior as well, so I'm under the assumption we'll see her in centerfield next year. Still no word on the official status of freshman Jasmine Smithson-Willett.

Louisville looks well-positioned to compete as a conference leader next year. Pitchers Caralisa Connell and Rachel LeCoq, who had all 47 wins between them, also return for duties inside the circle.

-Jeff McAdams


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