Sofftball heads to WKU -- Wednesday Cardinal Couple

 SOFTBALL TAKES 20-7 RECORD TO WKU FOR MID-WEEK MATCHUP

The Softball Cards step out of conference play to travel to Bowling Green for a Wednesday affair against WKU . 

The Cards return from a weekend battle against Clemson where they lost Friday and Saturday and won Sunday against the Tigers. WKU is 10-6 on the season and 3-3 in C-USA.

It'll be a 7 p.m. start and will be available on ESPN+  

WKU is 13-0 at home this season and comes off a 7-1 road loss at Jacksonville State. They dropped the three game series at Jax St. and, in case you were wondering, this Jacksonville State squad is in Alabama..not Florida. 

The Cards lead the series 22-4 against the softball Hiilltoppers but WKU is mising only one starter from last year and, unlike Louisville, they are a fence swinging bunch that has 31 home runs on the season. compared to the Cards 15. 

The Toppers pitching staff is faring quite well...with a EPA of 2.19. Western KY has won seven times this season in five-inning contests. 

They are batting .341 through 25 games and were on a win streak of 13 games at home before losing to Jax.St.

We'll have the recap for you, plus the WBB preview for Ist round Cards WBB NCAA action here tomorrow. 

paulie

WKU Shuts Out Cards Softball at Ulmer 2-0 -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 TOPS DOWN CARDS 2-0

Sometimes, when the Louisville Softball teams bats are in hibernation, even the mid-majors can come in to Ulmer and beat the home squad with a minimal effort. And, that's what happened Tuesday afternoon at the corner of Floyd and Lee on the south side of the UofL campus. The Cards could only muster singles from Easton Lotus and Ally Alexander against the Hilltoppers Erika Hogue (8-9) in the 2-0 Louisville loss.. 

Cards starter Alyssa Zabala faced only four batters and 2/3rd of an inning before leaving the contest limping noticeably. No disclosure on what happened to Zabala at the time of this writing. Brooke Gray followed in the circle and took the Cards loss, going 4.1 innings and allowing both runs. Gray is now 8-8 on the season. Sam Booe finished the circle duties for the Cards...turning in 2 innings of shutout pitching. 

WKU scored their first run in the top of the third. With the bases ;loaded, Macie Gregor drove in Macy Master, Gay was able to prevent any further damage, but the Tops added a run in the top of the fourth when Annie White hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Kendle White. 

The WKU win evened the 2025 series at 1-1, the Cards won in Bowling Green a month ago 3-2. 

With the loss, the Cards go to 23-21 on the season. 

The Cards welcome in FSU next to Ulmer for a three game series that starts Friday. The Noles are coming in to Louisville after a weekend series against Ga. Tech was cancelled because of the active shooter situation on the Noles campus several days ago. FSU comes in #3 in DI and sits at 40-6, on a six game win streak. 

(Jared Anderson photos)

pauiie

Walz selected U 23 head coach...Softball wins 1-0 over WKU -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

JEFF WALZ NAMED HEAD COACH OF U23 SQUAD

Coach and CARDINAL COUPLE hero Robbie Bartlett

Jeff Walz has been making a habit lately of spending part of his summers overseas. That will continue this summer..he's been picked as the head coach of the U-23 USA women's basketball team. It's the first time USA has had a U-23 team and the squad will participate with three other nations (Australia, Canada and Japan) in a round-robin tournament from Aug 12-15 in Tokyo. 

To be considered for the squad, players must be USA citizens, under 23 and currently a freshman, sophomore or junior in college. 

It'll be a 12-player squad and tryouts will start July 31st at the United States Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO. They go at it through Aug 4th...the squad will be selected and they'll leave for the land of the rising sun Aug. 7th.

Walz will have an old buddy as one of his two assistants. Michelle Clark- Heard...head coach at Western Kentucky and a former Walz assistant at Louisville...along with Courtney Banghart (Princeton) will be the brain trust for this unit. 

Walz was with USA Basketball as an assistant in 2014 and 2015...helping the squad compile a 12-0 record. In 2016, he took the Cards to Cuba. It's a great honor for the coach to be working with the best and the brightest in the college game and further shows that the Louisville head coach is one of the top echelon coaches in his profession as a college coach. 

Walz states: 

"I am beyond thankful for the honor to work with USA Basketball again," Walz said. "I had amazing experiences the past two summers as an assistant coach. Professionally, it's something I dreamed of doing, and it became a reality. Now, to be asked to be a head coach and work with these student-athletes, is incredibly humbling. USA Basketball possesses impeccable standards and a winning tradition, and I am excited for the opportunity and eager to be entrusted with such an important role.

"I was fortunate to have worked with Michelle (Clark-Heard) when she was on staff at Louisville," Walz added. "She is a terrific coach, has a great understanding of the game and an unmatchable work ethic, and I'm excited to coach with her again. I'm looking forward to working with Courtney (Banghart) and getting to know her better. I've been very impressed with what she has done throughout her career. The teams that she has put on the court always are very well-coached and play extremely hard."

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WON BY ONE...CARDS SOFTBALL DOWNS WKU

It wasn't a slug-fest any any means...but Louisville Softball scored a run in the bottom of the fourth inning and that was enough to get them by the visiting Hilltoppers. 

Thank Megan Hensley for the Wednesday night triumph. She tossed a seven-inning one-hitter at Big Red and drove in the lone run with a double...scoring Nicole *Poof * Pufahl, who had also doubled earlier in the inning and advanced to third on a beautifully executed sacrifice bunt by Maryssa Becker.

( I know...the words "bunt" and "Becker" don't normally appear in the same sentence very often...but the Oregonian slugger showed her versatility with the "lay-down")  

The Cards (26-14) managed only five hits against WKU starter Kathryn Downing...which leads to the conspiracy-theory that UofL's bat collection never made it back from Blacksburg, VA...where the Cards crushed  29 runs on 38 hits against the Hokies in a three game sweep last weekend. Or, the BatCards have a hitting phobia when facing non-conference schools. Against Kentucky, Lipscomb and WKU...Louisville scored three runs in 19 innings. 

Good to see Hensley (7-6) firing on all eight cylinders again. The sophomore has struggled with injuries and a broken nose this season (necessitating the mask she wears while pitching). The Cards will need her to stay on that same level...conference leader FSU comes to town this weekend for a three-game series. Scheduled to start Saturday at noon, there are provisional plans to possibly move the opener to Sunday for a double header if the weather is too dicey in the 'Ville on "Thunder Day". 

No air show or fireworks yesterday at Ulmer...but the Cards did what you have to do in order to win games...score more than the opponent does...and got the "W". 

SANDY PEARSALL TALKS ABOUT THE WIN
paulie
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Softball has home final vs. WKU tonight -- Wednesday Cardinal Couple

DANGEROUS TOPPERS TO FACE LOUISVILLE

Forget that the Cards swept the doubleheader last year when the two teams faced in Bowling Green. Set aside the fact that Louisville leads the overall series between the two foes 14-3 and has won the last six meetings. This year's version of WKU Softball is no pushover. 

Western (29-10) will take on the Cards in a 6 p.m. in-state rival match after getting the second no-hitter of the season from superlative pitcher Miranda Kramer over the weekend against Charlotte. If she's in the circle tonight, it could be a long night at the bat for Sandy Pearsall's squad. 

Kramer has a 20-7 record and a microscopic 0.80 ERA. That's second best in the nation. She also has 346 strikeouts...which is numero uno in D1 Softball. If she's selected to throw against Louisville...we could have another pitcher's duel on our hands if Maryssa Becker enters the circle for Sandy Pearsall.

The Cards' Oregonian sophomore has built a 13-5 record and sports an impressive 2.23 ERA. She also backs up her tosses at the bat...driving in the only run in Louisville's 1-0 win over Boston College over the weekend. 

Look for the Cards Kelsi Jones and Jordan McNary to try and wreck Kramer's party. Jones (.392) and "Mac" (.390) lead Louisville in hitting and Jones leads the ACC in doubles (17).

After last night's exciting 2-1 Louisville walk-off win against UK in Jim Patterson Stadium...which was primarily a pitcher's duel...we could be in for a similar treat on the northeast border of the Belknap Campus when "Big Red" brings the Toppers off The Hill to take on Louie's Birds. 

We'll recap it tomorrow.

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THE BEST IN THE CONTEST

In our April Contest, which was to pick the total number of runs Louisville would score in the final 11 games of April, Joe Hill and Nick O. are battling it out for the win. 

Tonight's game is the final chance to score. We realize that a few got rained out in the contest...and did think about extending it through the Pittsburgh series this weekend...but decided that the spirit of the event was April-oriented and that it will still finish in April. 

Nick O. picked 10 runs and the Cards have scored 16. Joe Hill selected 23. If Louisville can score seven tonight, Joe would win a $25 gift card in addition to the Absolutely Fabulous CARDINAL COUPLE T-Shirt. If the Cards get blanked on the scoreboard...Nick O. wins the shirt.

Holding down 3rd place is our "steamed columnist" Worldwide Jeff McAdams...who would need the Cards to erupt for 10 runs tonight to hit his guess of 26. 

We're going to change it up a bit for the May Contest. 

We'd like you to tell us which of the UofL women's sports teams is your favorite and why. Entries should be 100 words or less. It can be a current or past squad. We'll run a few of them as the month goes on and then select our favorite. Judging the entries will be our dutiful operations manager Sonja and yours truly...the Paulster. 

We are not entering. Neither is Worldwide. We'll be truly objective here and may have a third-party not associated with the site look over our favorite entries and help decide.

There's a $25 Gift Card to a dining establishment in it for you if you win. Our second favorite submission gets a new car, Johnny!!!  an ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS CARDINAL COUPLE T-Shirt! 

You've got all month to get them in. It's free, of course, and you can put your thoughts into any of the daily comments sections or send them to us via e-mail.

cardinalcouple@twc.com

We'll judge based on creativity, content and your heart-felt emotions. Then, we'll slow dance and take a walk down a moon-lit beach while...

OK, you get the idea. Send 'em!!

paulie 
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