University of Louisville
Evansville
Softball Splits With Evansville
February 24, 2001 | Softball
Feb. 24, 2001
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The University of Louisville softball team took advantage of Evansville's fielding mishaps to take the second game of a doubleheader 6-2. The Cardinals dropped the first game 3-0.
In the first game, the Purple Aces jumped on the Cardinals and scored two runs on just one hit in the first two innings. After a pitching change, Louisville's Jessica Rak held the Aces to just two hits in five innings and struck out seven but got little offense from her teammates who have five hits but were shut out. Purple Ace hurler Lissa Conn pitched a complete game shutout, striking out five and walking only one batter.
"We didn't have timely hitting and couldn't get anything going," said head coach Sandy Pearsall.
In the second game, Evansville committed six errors and four of the Cardinals' six runs were unearned. The Cards jumped on UE 4-0 after two innings and then added a run in the fifth. Nikki Gaudio homered for the Cardinals to lead off the sixth and end Cardinal scoring.
"We knew about Nikki's big stick, her power is one of the reasons we recruited her so heavily," said Pearsall.
Louisville got all of its hitting from the bottom of its lineup with the sixth, eighth and ninth batters each contributing a hit and an RBI.
Pitcher Tara McClure remains undefeated with a 4-0 record for the Cardinals (8-4). Maggie Ross took the loss for Evansville, which drops to 6-2 as a team.
"The wind really kicked up in the second game along with a bit of rain," said Pearsall. "We were lucky to hold on to the ball as well as we did. And Tara did a good job not getting rattled in the strong wind."
