"Worldwide" Jeff McAdams with article today, in a swap with Case. He'll have the Sunday write-up. Let's hope the theme of winning stays the same.
Softball Swings for the Fences
NCAA opening rounds for Softball got underway, with the Cards visiting Evanston, IL with hosting 16 seed Northwestern. The first matchup for the Cards was with Southern Illinois. They're the Salukis, a breed of dog similar to a Greyhound.
The Cards got the scoring going early. Sidney Melton got it started with a walk, and then of course stole second, because that's just what she does. The throw to second was missed and the ball rolled out into the outfield, giving Melton enough time to pop up from her dive, and get the wheels spinning again to 3rd and slid between the catcher's legs to beat the throw at the plate for the first run. Megan Hensley, Taylor Roby, and Rebecca Chung all got walks, and then a passed ball let Hensley slip home for the 2nd run.
In the 2nd inning, Celene Funke beat the throw for an infield single, and then, well, yeah, she stole 2nd as well (do you really need me to confirm that Melton or Funke stole 2nd when they get on 1st at this point?). Then it was Melton's turn again. Just between us friends, she never should have swung at this ball, it was high and tight, and probably would've been called a ball, but Sid chased it upstairs, and with an awkward swing, not only made contact, but got some power behind it and took it past the left field fence. Funke and Melton both cross the plate on the shot making it 4-0.
The Salukis would get their bats unlimbered, though and score 2 in the 3rd inning, and 3 in the 4th to take the lead 5-4.
The Cards would answer that 5th run in the bottom of the 4th, though. Maddy Newman got an infield hit, advanced to 2nd on Caitlin Ferguson's sacrifice bunt, and then reached the plate on Funke's single. (OK, in the interest of fairness, Funke got caught out trying to steal 2nd to end the inning.)
While SIU was done scoring, the Cards weren't. Hensley got her power going with a solo shot to left centerfield for her 13th of the season. She leads the team, here. Taylor Roby reached, then advanced when Rebecca Chung got hit by a pitch. Erin Wilber came in to fill in for Chung on the basepaths. Roby and Wilber both advanced on a Kyra Snyder groundout, and then came home for the 2nd and 3rd runs of the inning on a Maddy Newman double.
The Cards would add one more in the bottom of the 6th. On two outs, Sid Melton got a single on a bunt, advanced to 2nd when Hensley got to take a stroll, they both would advance, and Taylor Roby reach first on a fielding error by the SIU shortstop. Rebecca Chung got the final RBI with a single that brought Melton home.
The Cards will play hosting Northwestern in the 1-0 game of the double-elimination Regional. SIU drops down to the elimination half of the bracket and will play Detroit Mercy who were on the losing side of the other first day game.
The schedule for the day is the 1-0 game between NU and UofL at 2pm. The immediate goal is to end their own day as the loser will then wait to see who they'll be playing next. That will be the winner of the 4:30 game between Detroit Mercy and SIU. The last game of the night will be between the loser of the NU/UofL game, and the winner of the Detroit Mercy/SIU game. You can see the bracket for the regional (that will help make all of this clear) at:
https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/softball/d1/2019/regionals/102
The Cards got the scoring going early. Sidney Melton got it started with a walk, and then of course stole second, because that's just what she does. The throw to second was missed and the ball rolled out into the outfield, giving Melton enough time to pop up from her dive, and get the wheels spinning again to 3rd and slid between the catcher's legs to beat the throw at the plate for the first run. Megan Hensley, Taylor Roby, and Rebecca Chung all got walks, and then a passed ball let Hensley slip home for the 2nd run.
In the 2nd inning, Celene Funke beat the throw for an infield single, and then, well, yeah, she stole 2nd as well (do you really need me to confirm that Melton or Funke stole 2nd when they get on 1st at this point?). Then it was Melton's turn again. Just between us friends, she never should have swung at this ball, it was high and tight, and probably would've been called a ball, but Sid chased it upstairs, and with an awkward swing, not only made contact, but got some power behind it and took it past the left field fence. Funke and Melton both cross the plate on the shot making it 4-0.
The Salukis would get their bats unlimbered, though and score 2 in the 3rd inning, and 3 in the 4th to take the lead 5-4.
The Cards would answer that 5th run in the bottom of the 4th, though. Maddy Newman got an infield hit, advanced to 2nd on Caitlin Ferguson's sacrifice bunt, and then reached the plate on Funke's single. (OK, in the interest of fairness, Funke got caught out trying to steal 2nd to end the inning.)
While SIU was done scoring, the Cards weren't. Hensley got her power going with a solo shot to left centerfield for her 13th of the season. She leads the team, here. Taylor Roby reached, then advanced when Rebecca Chung got hit by a pitch. Erin Wilber came in to fill in for Chung on the basepaths. Roby and Wilber both advanced on a Kyra Snyder groundout, and then came home for the 2nd and 3rd runs of the inning on a Maddy Newman double.
The Cards would add one more in the bottom of the 6th. On two outs, Sid Melton got a single on a bunt, advanced to 2nd when Hensley got to take a stroll, they both would advance, and Taylor Roby reach first on a fielding error by the SIU shortstop. Rebecca Chung got the final RBI with a single that brought Melton home.
The Cards will play hosting Northwestern in the 1-0 game of the double-elimination Regional. SIU drops down to the elimination half of the bracket and will play Detroit Mercy who were on the losing side of the other first day game.
The schedule for the day is the 1-0 game between NU and UofL at 2pm. The immediate goal is to end their own day as the loser will then wait to see who they'll be playing next. That will be the winner of the 4:30 game between Detroit Mercy and SIU. The last game of the night will be between the loser of the NU/UofL game, and the winner of the Detroit Mercy/SIU game. You can see the bracket for the regional (that will help make all of this clear) at:
https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/softball/d1/2019/regionals/102
Rowing
3 boats advanced to the Grand Finals at the ACC Championship in Clemson, SC.
All three of the varsity Eights crews would finish in 3rd place in their heats, thus qualifying them to move on to today's Grand Finals.
The top two of the varsity four boats finished in 4th place in their heats, which qualifies them for the petite finals this morning.
Cardinal Couple Radio Hour
Join Paulie, Jared, and myself in the studio for a fun hour of UofL women's sports. It's the weekly Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, and we'll be covering Softball and Rowing predominantly, but I'm sure there will be plenty of other diversions and entertainments on other topics of interest.
You can tune in to 100.9 FM WCHQ in the central Louisville area, or via the WCHQ app, or streaming live from the WCHQ website https://www.wchqfm.com, and if that's not enough options, you can check out the Facebook Live stream on the wchqfm FB page https://www.facebook.com/wchqfm.
--
JMcA
from Cardinal Couple http://bit.ly/2Q9YVFu
Breaking News: Saturday Cardinal Couple - News Paper
0 komentar:
Post a Comment