Softball Opens Play at Home with Red & Black Classic

The University of Louisville softball team will play host to UAB in its home opener Thursday at 6 p.m. The Cardinals will also welcome Maryland, Miami (Ohio), Eastern Illinois and IUPUI to Ulmer Stadium for this weekend's Red & Black Classic. Admission is free to all home games.

Louisville's home games will be televised on ACC Network Extra through WatchESPN. Live scoring is available on GoCards.com.

2018 Red & Black Classic Schedule
Thursday, March 1
6 p.m. – Louisville vs. UAB
Friday, March 2
10 a.m. – IUPUI vs. Maryland
12:30 p.m. – UAB vs. IUPUI
3 p.m. – Louisville vs. Maryland
5:30 p.m. – Louisville vs. UAB
Saturday, March 3
10 a.m. – Eastern Illinois vs. UAB
12:30 p.m. – UAB vs. Miami (Ohio)
3 p.m. – Louisville vs. Miami (Ohio)
5:30 p.m. – Maryland vs. Eastern Illinois
7:30 p.m. – Maryland vs. IUPUI
Sunday, March 4
10 a.m. – Miami (Ohio) vs. Maryland
12:30 p.m. – Miami (Ohio) vs. IUPUI
3 p.m. – IUPUI vs. Eastern Illinois
5:30 p.m. – Louisville vs. Eastern Illinois

Louisville Quick Hits
• The Cardinals enter the weekend with a 10-4 overall record after a 4-1 showing in the 2018 D9 Citrus Classic last weekend. For the third week in a row, Louisville is receiving votes in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches poll.
• Louisville is 15-3 in home openers in the history of the program.
• The Cards have won their last three games and four out of their last five.

Louisville Player Quick Hits
• Sophomore Caitlin Ferguson leads the team with a .383 batting average, six doubles and 10 RBIs.
• Ferguson has recorded a team-best six multi-hit games.
• Senior Jenna Jordan has reached base via a hit or a walk in the last 11 games while Ferguson has reached in the last seven games.
• Junior Sidney Melton has score a team-high 10 runs and is on a five-game hitting streak.
• Freshman Danielle Watson (8-4) carries a team-best 1.90 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 48.0 innings of work while holding opponents to a .163 batting average. Junior Megan Hensley (2-1) follows with a 2.60 ERA and 34 strikeouts in 43.0 innings and is limiting opponents to a .210 average.
• Sandy Pearsall enters her 19th season as UofL's head coach. After building the program from scratch in 2000, Pearsall has guided the Cardinals to six conference championships. Under her watch, Louisville has made 13 NCAA regional appearances and served as a host site in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Cards against the field
UAB
Series Record: UL leads 18-4
Last Meeting: May 18, 2013 - UAB won 7-4 in an NCAA regional at Ulmer Stadium.
Scouting the Blazers: UAB brings a 6-10 overall record into a Wednesday evening matchup with South Alabama. The Blazers are coming off of a 4-0 loss to No. 11 Alabama Tuesday. Prior to that, UAB went 3-2 in the Troy Classic last weekend, with wins over Troy, Tennessee Tech and Murray State.
• Madison Milsaps leads the team with a .419 batting average and 11 RBIs. Analyse Petree has belted out three home runs and scored a team-high 12 runs.
• Emily Kachel (4-3) carries a 2.07ERA with 37 strikeouts in 50.2 innings of work.
NOTE: The majority of the meetings between Louisville and UAB took place when both teams were members of Conference USA from 2000-05.

Maryland
Series Record: UL leads 3-0
Last Meeting: March 9, 2007 - Louisville won 2-1 in College Park, Md.
Scouting the Terrapins: Maryland enters the weekend with a 3-11 record after finishing Florida's Aquafina Invitational with a 1-5 record that included a pair of losses to No. 1/2 Florida and an eight-inning setback to Illinois State.
• Brigette Nordberg leads the Terps with a .395 batting average, five doubles and eight runs. Skylynne Ellazar follows at a .378 clip with two home runs and is tied with Jacqui Pascual with a team-best six RBIs.
• Ryan Denhart (1-5) leads the Blazers' pitching staff with a 2.88 ERA with 18 strikeouts in 41.1 innings while Sydney Golden (2-5) followed with a 4.36 ERA and 15 Ks in 35.1 innings of work.

Miami (Ohio)
Series Record: UL leads 3-2
Last Meeting: March 19, 2015 - Louisville won 8-1 in Oxford.
Scouting the RedHawks: Miami (3-6) is coming off of a 2-2 showing at the D9 Citrus Classic I last weekend. After falling 11-8 to Harvard and 12-0 to No. 24 South Carolina, the RedHawks defeated Morgan State 9-1 and Lehigh 6-5 to close the tournament.
• Miami is led at the plate by Megan Wurts who is hitting .391 with two doubles. Ashton Slone follows with a .318 batting average and has driven in four runs.
• Courtney Vierstra (3-3) has shouldered much of the load in the circle and carries a 3.13 ERA with 29 strikeouts in 31.1 innings.
NOTE: UofL head coach Sandy Pearsall coached at Miami from 1992 through 1998 and was inducted into the Miami University Cradle of Coaches Hall of Fame in 2012.

Eastern Illinois
Series Record: UL leads 2-0
Last meeting: Feb. 24, 2013- Louisville won 5-0 in the Cardinal Classic.
Scouting the Panthers: Eastern Illinois enters the weekend with the best record in the tournament field at 12-3. The Panthers are riding a 10-game win streak dating back to the second weekend of the season when they went 5-0 in the Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldog Tournament and then followed with a 5-0 showing at the UT Chattanooga Frost Classic.
• Haley Mitchell leads the team with a .400 batting average, five home runs and 22 RBIs. Kayla Bear follows closely with a .396 average, 14 runsce scored and eight stolen bases.
•Michelle Rogers (6-2) leads the Panthers' pitching staff with a 2.07 ERA and has 28 strikeouts in 40.2 innings of work. Jessica Wireman (5-0) carries a 2.23 ERA with 58 Ks in 44.0 innings and three saves.

Up Next: The Cardinals will continue their 14-game home stand March 9-11 when they welcome Bradley, UMass and Eastern Michigan to Ulmer Stadium for the Louisville Softball Classic.

Recapping Last weekend
Louisville went 4-1 in last the D9 Citrus Classic I with wins over Lehigh, Morgan State, South Alabama and Harvard. The Cardinals' only loss of the weekend was a 5-3 setback to No. 24 South Carolina.
Junior Sidney Melton helped lead the Cardinals offensively on the weekend with a .467 batting average (7-for-15) five runs, six RBIs and three stolen bases. She also earned five walks to help secure a .600 on-base percentage. Melton had at least one hit in each game and went 2-for-3 against No. 24 South Carolina and 2-for-4 with two RBIs against Morgan State. She also scored at least one run in four out of five games on the weekend, scoring twice in the win against Lehigh. The speedy outfielder was a perfect 3-for-3 in stolen bases.

Louisville 14 - Lehigh 1 (6 innings)
Ferguson went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and a run and senior Alison Szydlowski collected a career-high four RBIs to lead Louisville to a 14-1 win over Lehigh.
• Danielle Watson picked up the win, holding Lehigh scoreless and striking out three in 2.2 innings of relief. Megan Hensley surrendered one earned run on three hits and struck out one in 3.1 innings, she also went 2-for-3 with a hit and an RBI at the plate. Jamie Soles and Celene Funke each had a pair of hits.

South Carolina 5 – Louisville 3
Caitlin Ferguson and Sidney Melton each went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Funke went 2-for-3 with a run to pace the Louisville offensively, but it wasn't enough as No. 24 South Carolina took an early lead and held off the Cardinals 5-3.
• Watson took the loss, allowing five earned runs on five hits and striking out three in 5.1 innings. Hensley tossed 1.2 shutout innings of relief, allowing two hits and fanning three. The Cardinals produced nine hits in the game and left nine runners on.

Louisville 12 - Morgan State 4 (five innings)
Senior Jamie Soles went 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBIs and freshman Danielle Watson did not give up a run or a hit while striking out six in 3.1 innings of relief to help the Cards beat Morgan State 12-4 in five innings.

Louisville 5- South Alabama 4 (eight innings)
Freshman Maddy Newman was safe at the plate on sophomore Celene Funke's fielder's choice to score the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the eight to lift the Cards to a 5-4 win over the Jaguars
• Megan Hensley got the start and did not give up a hit in 5.2 innings of play before surrender a pair of singles in the sixth. She gave up three runs, one earned and struck out one. Seven different players recorded hits as the Cards outhit the Jaguars 8-3.

Pearsall, Louisville nearing 700 wins
Head coach Sandy Pearsall has accumulated 695 wins in her tenure since starting the program in 2000. During the past 19 seasons, she has led the Cardinals to six conference championships, 13 NCAA appearances and several top 10 rankings.

Hitting for average
The Cardinals boast four players who are batting over .300 on the season. Sophomore Caitlin Ferguson is leading the way with a .383 average. Fellow sophomore Celene Funke follows at a .355 clip. Senior Nicole Pufahll is batting .333 while senior Jamie Soles rounds out the top four with a .314 average.

Watson off to stellar start
Freshman Danielle Watson has been impressive in her debut as a Cardinal. The right-handed pitcher carries an 8-4 record and leads the ACC in wins. She also has a 1.90 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 48.0 innings while holding opponents to a .163 batting average.
•The Osceola, Ind., native made her debut in the Cardinals 5-3 win over UCF. In that game, she surrendered one earned run and struck out five while scattering four hits in 5.0 innings.

Senior leadership
Through the first three weeks of the season, the four seniors in the starting lineup have been instrumental in the Cardinals' early success.
•Catcher Jenna Jordan leads the team with 10 RBI and two home runs and has reached base via a hit or walk in the past 11 games.
•Centerfielder Nicole Pufahl is third on the team with a .333 batting average and eight runs
• Second baseman Jamie Soles has played in every game with 12 starts and stands fourth on the team with a .314 batting average and second with nine runs and eight RBIs.
• Third baseman Alison Szydlowski carries a .280
batting average and has reached base via a hit or walk in nine of the Cardinals' 14 games this season.
Note: Senior Ashley Nikolao is currently sidelined by injury.

Youthful impact
Along with the veteran leadership on the field, several underclassmen have also made valuable contributions.
• Sophomore Caitlin Ferguson has started every game at shortstop, third base or first base and leads the team with a .383 batting average, six doubles and 10 RBIs.
• Sophomore Celene Funke is second on the team with a .355 batting average and is a perfect 4 for 4 in stolen bases.
• Freshman RHP Danielle Watson leads the pitching staff with an 8-4 record and a 1.90 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 48.0 innings of work.
• Freshman Kyra Snyder has started every game at first base or in the circle.

The road ahead
The Cardinals 2018 schedule, which features games against six teams who qualified for the 2017 NCAA Tournament and eight opponents who are ranked or are receiving votes in the ESPN.com/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA top 25 polls of 2017. The Cardinals will play 23 games at Ulmer Stadium, including two tournaments.

Cards on the air
At the start of the 2018 season, the Cardinals will have 25 games televised nationally including one contest on ESPNU. The television slate feature all of the Cardinals' 23 home games.
• All 12 ACC institutions sponsoring softball will be featured multiple times throughout the season, with more than 220 games streaming on ACC Network Extra, Watch ESPN and the ESPN App. ESPN's broadcast schedule will include more than 650 college softball games.
• The Cardinals will appear on ESPN's ACC Monday on April 23 for the third game of its ACC matchup against preseason ACC favorite Florida State.
• Louisville's matchup at in-state rival Kentucky will be carried on the SEC Network.
• The remaining home games will be carried on ACC Network Extra.

Louisville picked to finish fourth in ACC
The University of Louisville softball team was picked to finish fourth in the ACC according to a preseason vote by the league's 12 head coaches.
• With the addition of Duke for the 2018 season, the ACC will split into the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions. Florida State, the preseason No. 6 team in the country, will be joined in the Atlantic Division by Boston College, Louisville, NC State, Notre Dame and Syracuse. The Coastal Division will include Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pitt, Virginia and Virginia Tech.

2018 ACC Softball Preseason Coaches' Poll
1. Florida State (11) – 121
2. North Carolina (1) – 105
3. Notre Dame – 97
4. Louisville – 90
5. Boston College – 85
6. Syracuse – 62
7. Virginia Tech – 57
8. Virginia – 43
9. Pitt – 42
10. NC State – 41
11. Georgia Tech – 29
12. Duke – 20

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Players Mentioned

Caitlin Ferguson

Celene Funke

Megan Hensley

Jenna Jordan

Sidney Melton

Maddy Newman

Ashley Nikolao

Nicole Pufahl

Kyra Snyder

Jamie Soles

Alison Szydlowski

Danielle Watson

University of Louisville Athletics