University of Louisville
BALL STATE
Softball Splits with Northwestern and Ball State
March 08, 2015 | Softball
Sandy Pearsall discusses Sunday's games 
Senior Kelsi Jones
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville softball team split a pair of games, falling 11-0 to Northwestern and defeating Ball State 8-0 in the Louisville Softball Classic Sunday afternoon at Ulmer Stadium. Louisville (9-6) will face Illinois State in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Monday.
Louisville 8 - Ball State 0 (5Â 
Louisville wasted no time in grabbing the lead against Ball State (10-13). Kelsi Jones led off the inning with a walk and Jordan McNary followed with a single. Jones stole third on a strikeout to set up Hailey Smith's RBI hit.
Louisville plated three more runs in the second inning. Tiarra Sanabria jump-started the offense with her first career triple. Brittany Sims followed with a double in the left-center gap to score Sanabria and extend the lead to 2-0. One out later, McNary notched her second hit of the game when she lined a single up the middle to plate Sims. Maryssa Becker immediately followed with a RBI single up the middle to give the Cards a 4-0 lead.
UofL used five walks and a fielder's choice to tack on two more runs in the third. Louisville continued its offensive output with a run in the fourth. Alison Szydlowski notched her first career hit - a double off the center field fence - to score Whitney Arion, who walked earlier in the inning, to make the score 7-0. Brittany Sims launched her third home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning to extend the lead to 8-0 and clinch the first win of the season at Ulmer Stadium.
McCombs pitched a one-hitter with five strikeouts to improve to 4-1 on the season. She retired her first ten batters she faced before allowing an infield single in the fourth inning. She recovered to retire her final five batters of the game. Sims was 2 for 2 with a double, a home run, two runs and two RBIs. McNary was 2 for 2 with two RBIs.
Nicole Steinbach (5-7) took the loss, allowing four earned runs on six hits and striking out one in 2.0 innings. Loren Cihlar had Ball State's lone hit in the game.
Northwestern 11 - Louisville 0Â
In their first game of the day, the Cards stranded eight runners in an 11-0 loss to Northwestern (9-10).
The teams played through two scoreless innings before Northwestern broke through with a run in the third. Andrea DiPrima reached on a third-strike wild pitch and eventually scored on Amy Letourneau's RBI single.
The Wildcats added another run in the fourth. Sammy Nettling connected on a leadoff hit. A groundout and a hit sent her to third and a sacrifice hit by Sabrina Rabin made the score 2-0.
Northwestern used seven hits - including a home run by Julia Kuhn - to tack on five more runs in the fifth.
A four-run seventh saw back-to-back home runs by Andrea Filler and Amy Letourneau and brought the final score to 11-0.
Louisville's best chance to score came in the first when Jones registered a two-out double and walks to Maryssa Becker and Hailey Smith loaded the bases, but a fly out ended the inning.
Maryssa Becker (2-1) took the loss, allowing six earned runs on 11 hits and striking out six in 6.0 innings. Jones went 1 for 1 with a double and two walks in the game. Becker and Sims also had hits for Louisville.
Amy Letourneau (6-7) got the complete-game shutout win, allowing three hits and striking out six in 7.0 innings. Filler was 4 for 5 with three RBIs and one run while Amy Letourneau went 4 for 5 with two runs and two RBIs to pace the Wildcats offensively.
