More on Lady Cards win over Syracuse...Softball starts 4-0...BIG EAST Saturday Hoops

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SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Cards guards win the battle for UofL

-Pearsall, softball Cards off to 4-0 start in Fla.

-BIG EAST SATURDAY & SUNDAY HOOPS review.

-Farewell, Mr. Trager...


The key factors to Louisville's win Saturday against Syracuse was shutting down the inside play of Kayla Alexander and Iasia Hemingway and also getting good guard outside shooting against the Syracuse zone from the three main 3-point shooters on the Lady Cards (18-7,7-5) squad....Becky Burke, Shoni Schimmel and Nita Slaughter. 

They accomplished both tasks with flying colors.

Hemingway, who was BIG EAST Player of the Week last week, was held to 0-4 shooting, four rebounds and just 2 points in 29 minutes. Credit Asia Taylor (also 29 minutes) for the defensive stop here. Alexander had a good afternoon, with 20 points, 12 boards and 8-11 from the foul line...but her effort wasn't enough to beat Louisville. 

The 'Cuse plays a 2-3 match-up zone 95% of the time...so Louisville's outside shooting was going to either save or sink the game. Between Slaughter, Shoni and Burke...the Cards guards were 17-36 in shooting and 16-29 from 3-point range. 48 points from beyond the arc for these three. Impressive. 

Also give a tip of the cap to Taylor and Hammond for their offense. Taylor with a strong 12 points, nine boards and Hammond bringing 5-6 shooting off the bench for 12 points. Louisville got beat in the points-in-the-paint category 28-18 but won second chance points (17-16), Points off turnovers (22-14) and had 12 steals while Syracuse had just six. 

The 10 left on the team have worked into a substitution pattern that seems pretty effective. Shoni at point or two....with Jude or Shelby providing relief. Bria at two with Shoni going there to spell her. Burke at the three, Slaughter giving backup there. Asia and Hammond playing the four, Slaughter coming in at times. Vails and Dyer sharing the five. 

Cierra Warren, they ain't missing you at all...

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The University of Louisville softball team is off to a 4-0 start to the season....winning two games Friday and two games Saturday in the FIU Combat Classic in Miami, FL.



Collins with the win in game one



Louisville got the tournament underway with a convincing 4-1 win over Michigan State. Senior Tori Collins struck out nine Spartan batters and Taner Fowler smashed a two-run homer in the fourth inning to seal the victory. The Cards scored in the first when Jennifer Esteban's bunt single advanced her around the base path on two Lady Cards fielder's choices. After Fowler's blast, the Cards added another run in the fifth when Jordan Trimble scored on a Maggie Ruckenbrod sacrifice fly. Collins allowed just six MSU hits, in going the distance.

Ruckenbrod providing
early power for UofL

The second Friday game saw Louisville gather eight runs on nine hits...Taner Fowler and Maggie Ruckenbrod going "fence"....in a 8-3 win over Illinois. Fowler's blast came in the second inning, giving the softball sluggers a 2-1 lead. The Lady Cards extended that to 3-1 in the fourth when Hannah Kiyohara scored on Kristin Austin's triple. Illinois tied it in the fifth, but Louisville responded with five runs in the sixth. Katelyn Mann opened the inning with a triple and scored on a error. Austin and Esteban reached on infield hits and Jordy Trimble singled to score Austin to make it 5-3. That set the stage for Ruckenbrod's 3-run bomber over the left-center field fence. Collins got the win with 2.1 innings of relief.

Saturday pitted Louisville against UAB. The Cards took  a 5-4 victory behind Ruckenbrod's two homers and a fence clearer from Mann. Louisville allowed two runs in the first on a two run homer...but tied it in the second when Mann's blast scored her and Kiyohara. Ruckenbrod gave Louiville the lead with her first moon-shot, a solo homer in the third.

UAB battled back to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth but the Cards got a two run blast from Ruckenbrod in the bottom of the fifth, scoring her and Katie Keller for the final runs of the game. Chelsea Leonard picked up the win with 2.1 innings of shutout relief.

Caralisa Connell another
strong pitcher for Cards.

In the second game Saturday, Louisvile downed homestanding FIU 4-2 behind the two-hit pitching of Caralisa Connell. Jordy Trimble's single in the first plated  Esteban.  The Cards made it 3-0 in the second behind back-to-back doubles from Whitney Arion and Kiyohara. The Cards loaded the bases after singles from Austin and Esteban and Trimble drove in Kiyohara with a single.

After FIU scored in the second and third to make it 3-2...Kristin Austin supplied the insurance and final score of the game, her single scoring Arion. 

Louisville finished their action in the Combat Classic Sunday with one game...against UMass. The Cards have a strong compliment of hitters and pitching arms it appears...and some long ball blasters in Ruckenbrod, Mann, Fowler and Trimble. Gonna be a fun season in the Ulmer!

(Sorry about the small print here. Sometimes, Blogger has a mind of its own. We're working on it...)



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Besides the Louisville win over Syracuse, there were four other games in the BIG EAST Saturday...

--UConn went to 11-1 in BIG EAST play with a 80-32 romp over Georgetown. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had 23 for the Huskies on 10-16 shooting. Georgetown (8-4) got 10 from Sugar in the loss.

--Providence improved to 5-7 in conference play with a 62-47 win over Seton Hall. Rachel Barnes was one of three Friars in double figures with 19 points. SHU drops to 0-12 in the BIG EAST.

--USF is also now 5-7...downing Villanova (5-7) by a score of 54-39. Andrell Smith with a big one for the Bulls...scoring 22 points for Jose Fernandez's team.

--Cincinnati (4-8) takes a 62-57 win over Pittsburgh. Bjonee Reaves led the Bearcats with 19 points. The loss drops Pitt to 0-11. They get Louisville Tuesday.

62 was a popular number Saturday...three teams ending up with 62 points.

Three games played on Sunday.

--Marquette (4-7) lost to DePaul (7-5)
--Notre Dame (11-1) upset by West Virginia (8-3)
--St. John's (9-3) went to Jersey and defeated Rutgers (6-5)


BIG EAST LEADERS NATIONWIDE:

-Sugar Rodgers 19.8 p.p.g. #17 in nation

-Assists per game Skylar Diggins 5.9 #14 in nation.

-Scoring Margin. UConn +35.2 #1 in nation.

-Scoring Offense. Notre Dame 83.6 p.p.g  #1 in nation

-Home game attendance (single game) Louisville vs. UConn

16,432.

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Finally, a sad farewell to Bernard Trager. The Republic Bank head was a strong supporter of all UofL sports and valued donor. We'll miss the affable Trager and we know that Republic will continue the unselfish giving to UofL sports.

Bernard Trager died Friday and was 83 years old. CARDINAL COUPLE extends  sincere and heartfelt condolances to the Trager family. He will be greatly missed, but his legacy will live on forever.

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