Softball Set for BIG EAST Tournament
May 10, 2006 | Softball
May 10, 2006
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - - Softball Set for BIG EAST Tournament The No. 18-ranked and top-seeded University of Louisville softball team will open play in the BIG EAST Tournament against eighth-seeded St. John's (27-29, 8-14) Thursday, May 11. The tournament will take place May 11-13 at Belleville Softball Complex, South Bend, Ind.
BIG EAST softball fans will have plenty of options to keep up with the action for this week's tournament. There are championship pages on www.und.com and www.bigeast.org, with the www.und.com page containing each contest's Gametracker links, final game boxscores and live audio links.
Each game of the 2006 BIG EAST Championship will be broadcast via live audio coverage on www.und.com and will be free for all listeners. Notre Dame Assistant Sports Information Director Chris Masters will call every pitch of the first two day's action.
For the championship game, which will be broadcast live on CSTV (check your local cable listings), the television coverage will be available on www.und.com free of charge as well. There will be no subscription needed for any of the BIG EAST Championship coverage on www.und.com this week.
U of L carries a 41-8 (19-3 BIG EAST) record into the 2006 BIG EAST Tournament. The Cards are currently ranked No. 18 and are riding a program high 15 game winning streak which began on April 22 against Syracuse.
The Cardinals secured their first BIG EAST regular season championship this past weekend as they completed a sweep of their last three road opponents, beating Providence 8-1 and 4-1; Rutgers 7-3 and 3-0 and Villanova 6-1 and 9-1. The Cardinals entered the weekend in second place behind USF, but the Bulls lost to Rutgers on Sunday to hand the Cardinals the regular season championship based on win percentage. U of L earned a top seed in the league tournament and will face No. 8 seeded St. John's in the first game.
Louisvlle is batting .290 on the season with senior catcher Lacy Wood's .405 batting average, eight home runs and 45 RBI leading the way. Junior shortstop Courtney Moore follows with a .356 average, a team-leading 40 runs and is second on the team with six homers and 28 RBI. Junior third baseman Audrey Rendon is hitting .344 with 32 runs and 14 stolen bases while freshman Kristi Cunningham rounds out the over .300 hitters with a .316 average, six home runs and 23 runs scored.
Junior RHP Catherine Bishop (27-5) leads in the circle with a league best 0.75 ERA and 192 strikeouts in 198.2 innings. She is holding opponents to a .143 batting average. Sophomore RHP Kady Garrick (11-2) has also been strong with a 1.09 ERA and 76 Ks in 103 innings of work.
St. John's (27-29, 8-14) is batting .275 as a team. Lauren Lupinetti leads at the plate with a .392 average, eight home runs and 47 RBI. Sherlock follows, batting .379 with a team-leading 36 runs and 66 hits.
Lisa Geer (13-13) holds a 3.54 ERA with 137 strikeouts in 162.1 innings pitched. Kimberly Lerch (7-6) follows with a .283 record and 65 strikeouts in 116.1 innings of work.
Cards vs. St. John's Series record: Tied at 1-1 In 2006: March 31 at Louisville- The teams split a doubleheade. The then-No. 20 ranked Cardinals won the first game 4-1, but St. John's picked up a 4-1 win in the nightcap. Notes: The St. John's doubeheader marked the Cardinals' first BIG EAST win and then their first loss. Catherine Bishop got the win in the first game, holding the Red Storm to four hits. Louisville took advantage of two errors and six walks to score three runs as Lisa Geer and Jessica Foley combined to hold the Cards to one hit (Sarah Totten).
In game two, Kady Garrick allowed three runs and Bishop gave up one as St. John's combined for six hits and took a 4-0 lead. Danielle Estrada was 2 for 4. Audrey Rendon also went 2 for 4 and scored U of L's only run in the sixth.
