MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE...CARDS WILL HOST SOFTBALL REGIONALS

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


-Louisville hosts Valparaiso, KENTUCKY and Michigan in NCAA Softball Regionals


-The Top 16 in NCAA Regionals



-Reid, Gibbs officially eligible for 2012-13 season


The University of Louisville will host one of the regional sites in the upcoming NCAA Softball Regionals that begin Friday, May 18th. Louisville will return to Ulmer Stadium and open play against Valparaiso (42-17) at 7 p.m. Friday evening. 


The other participants in the Regional are the Kentucky Wildcats (29-28) and Michigan (39-15). These two will square off at 4:30 p.m. Friday. 

A bit surprising that Louisville was the #15 seed after compiling a 53-3 record, winning both the BIG EAST regular season and tournament titles and being ranked in the top 10 most of the year. Nevertheless, a chance for at least two (and most likely more) games in front of the fans in Ulmer. 

Regional play is double elimination. The Cards would play a minimum of three games if they can win each time out. This is the third time in the last four years that Louisville has hosted the NCAA Regionals and ninth consecutive NCAA apperance for Sandy Pearsall's squad. 


All games will be shown on either ESPN 2 or ESPN 3


Louisville Regional


Friday, May 18th
Game 1 - Kentucky vs. Michigan - 4:30 p.m.
Game 2 - Louisville vs. Valparaiso - 7 p.m.


Saturday, May 19th
Game 3 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 - 1 p.m.
Game 4 - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 - 3:30 p.m.
Game 5 - Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4 - 6 p.m.


Sunday, May 20th
Game 6 - Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5 - 1 p.m.
Game 7 - (if needed) Game 6 teams again - 3:30 p.m


Ticket Information
Adult All-Session $25.00
Child All-Session $15.00
Student/Senior Citizen All-Session $15.00
Adult Single Session $10.00
Child Single Session $7.00
Student/Senior Single Session $7.00
Group and Berm: $5.00 Single Session only


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Here are the top 16 teams, who will host Regionals, out of the field of 64: 


1) California                            9) Missouri
2) Alabama                            10) Georgia
3) Arizona St.                        11) Oregon
4) Oklahoma                         12) UCLA
5) Florida                              13) Arizona
6) Texas                               14) LA-Lafayette
7) Tennessee                        15) Louisville
8) Texas A&M                       16) Washington


From the BIG EAST, four other teams besides Louisville got in. Notre Dame goes to the Arizona regional. USF plays in the Florida regional. DePaul will

travel to the Missouri regional and Syracuse heads to Arizona State's regional. 

Top 16 heavy, of course, with SEC, PAC-12 and BIG 12 teams. Louisville and Louisiana-Lafayette the only two teams to host Regionals that aren't a member of those three conferences.  


If Louisville advances in their region, they would be in the Alabama Super Regional. Teams that are in the Alabama Regional are Alabama, UT Martin, South Alabama and Georgia Tech.

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We knew it all along, but the NCAA, per UofL Sports Information, has cleared UofL women's basketball players Monique Reid and Tia Gibbs to play in the 2012-13 season.

We think the season ahead could be something really special. Having Reid and Gibbs a part of it makes it even more exciting.

Now, who ya gonna start, Jeff? A good problem to have...
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Four remain in College Softball World Series

Tennessee, Arizona, Georgia and UCLA play in the semifinal Sunday in Oklahoma City for the chance to advance to the championship bracket in the 2010 NCAA Softball Championships

The Vols, who eliminated Louisville from the tournament in Knoxville, take on Arizona in one of the semifinal matches. They beat Arizona 9-0 earlier in the double elimination format and if they win they secure one of the final two spots. A loss to the Wildcats would force a deciding second game today.

UCLA goes against the Georgia Bulldogs in the other semifinal contest. Georgia sent Florida to the sidelines last night with a 3-2 win. The Bulldogs also will need to win twice today if they are going to play in the championship series. Arizona ended Hawaii's season yesterday with a 5-1 beating.

Action starts at 3:30 and will be on the four letter network.

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DROSSELMEYER came flying down the Belmont stretch to win the Belmont Stakes yesterday at 13-1 odds...catching FIRST DUDE and holding off FLY DOWN for win.
A nice win for veteran trainer Bill Mott, a Churchill regular who had never won a Triple Crown race until yesterday. DROSSELMEYER got the win with Mike Smith aboard..a jockey change from Kent "Superman" Desormeaux.

A key factor? Definitely...Mike Smith is a veteran, cagey jockey who knows the New York strip well and is one of the most paitent riders out there. Smith let FIRST DUDE dictate the pace and waited for the midstretch before making the sweeping move to grab the lead.

Another factor that didn't hurt. DROSSELMEYER trained in aluminum pads on his feet at Belmont...which protected his feet from the abrasive Belmont surface. The win for DROSSELMEYER was his third in nine lifetime starts.

Trivia question...Who is Drosselmeyer?

He is one of the characters in the ballet "Nutcracker." Having sat thru yearly performances of the Nutcracker at the Louisville ballet when I was younger..I remembered the name and we featured DROSSELMEYER here in a column in CARDINAL COUPLE as one of our live longshots a couple of days ago.

We were rewarded with a $47 across the board return for our $2 win/place/show wager. We also put him in a $1 exacta box with ICE BOX, FLY DOWN, FIRST DUDE and STAY PUT..and that $20 investment brought back $72. Unfortunately, our $1 trifecta wheel did not have DROSSELMEYER on top and we donated $56 to the mutuals on that one.
Across the board on FIRST DUDE got us back a little show money.

An across the board on MAKE MUSIC FOR ME ended up in the recycling bin. So did an inexpensive .10 cent superfecta that had all the right horses but no DROSSELMEYER on top. Paul got the entire table with us at the Turf Club mad at him when he proudly displayed a $2 win/place/show ticket in the previous race at Belmont on WINCHESTER. This one went off at 21-1 and upset GIO PONTI in the Manhatten Handicap to give him $67 back for $6 wagered.

The card at Churchill wasn't as kind to us Saturday...we were pretty far down before hitting the late Pick 4 to get us back to close to even there.