Softball Falls 5-4 to Notre Dame

Saturday, April 1

LOUISVILLE, KY

12 p.m.

University of Louisville

20-9, 0

NOTRE DAME

18-13, 0

Notre Dame

Louisville

April 01, 2017 | Softball

Box Score Notre Dame 5 - Louisville 4 (PDF)Photo Gallery

Late inning rally lifts Irish to 5-4 win over Cards

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville's Caitlin Ferguson and Nicole Pufahl each had a home run, but it wasn't enough as Melissa Rochford's two-run single in the top of the seventh lifted Notre Dame to a 5-4 win over the Cardinals in game one of an ACC softball series Saturday afternoon at Ulmer Stadium.

Game two of the series will be shown live on ESPNU Sunday at 2 p.m.

The Cards (20-9, 4-1 ACC) jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when freshman shortstop Caitlin Ferguson led off the home half of the frame with her first career home run.

The Irish (18-13, 5-5) answered with a pair of runs in the top of the third. Madison Heide delivered a leadoff single and took second on Karley Wester's sacrifice bunt. Ali Wester's base hit put runners on the corners for Morgan Reed's RBI single which evened the score at 1-1. Wester crossed the plate on a groundout by Caitlyn Brooks to give Notre Dame a 2-1 lead.

The Cardinals countered with two runs of their own in the fourth. Senior first baseman Tiarra Sanabria got the inning started with a double to the left field fence. Sophomore designate player Megan Hensley's fly out sent Sanabria to third and she came home when senior leftfielder Morgan Meyer reached and moved to second on back-to-back errors. Sophomore second baseman Jamie Soles doubled Meyer home to put Louisville back on top 3-2.

Junior centerfielder Nicole Pufahl's third home run of the season, a solo shot to lead off the fifth inning pushed the lead to 4-2.

Notre Dame cut the lead in half with an unearned run in the sixth. A leadoff walk put Caitlyn Brooks on and she was lifted for pinch runner Bailey Bigler who moved to second on Rochford's hit and took third on Katie Marino's sacrifice bunt. A Louisville error sent Bigler home to make the score 4-3.

Senior Maryssa Becker (15-6) took the loss, allowing five runs, four earned, on eight hits and striking out four in seven innings. Ferguson and Pufahl each went 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI to pace the Cards offensively. Soles and Sanabria also had two hits apiece to help Louisville to a 9-8 edge in hits.

Katie Berion (5-5) got the win after surrendering one unearned run on one hit and fanning one in two innings of relief. Rochford led the Irish at the plate with a 2-for-4, two RBI performance on the day while Ali Wester is 2-for-4 with a run.

"We did several things poorly today, which you just can't do against a team like Notre Dame," said UofL head coach Sandy Pearsall. "Our pitch selection was not particularly good at times, we were chasing way outside the zone which we shouldn't have done. In both situations when they scored, we let their leadoff batter on. We need also consistency in pitching. Notre Dame put hits together to get their runs and we played for the long ball today, and couldn't get much going in between. Having said that, Jamie and Nicole had a good day and it was good to see Tiarra hit the ball well. I thought Morgan Meyer did a nice job of taking advantage of their error and kept herself in motion which was ideal and great execution on her part."