Softball Tops Syracuse 2-1 in ACC First Round

Wednesday, May 9

Atlanta, GA

1:00 PM

University of Louisville

33-19

Syracuse

30-20

Syracuse

Louisville

May 09, 2018 | Softball

Box Score Louisville 2 - Syracuse 1

Hensley tosses a two-hitter to help Louisville beat Syracuse 2-1

By: Lori Korte

ATLANTA – The University of Louisville softball team built an early 2-0 lead and held on to beat Syracuse 2-1 in the first game of the 2018 Softball Championship Wednesday afternoon at Georgia Tech's Mewborn Field. The eighth-seeded Cardinals (33-19) will move on to face the top-seed No. 7/10 Florida State in the quarterfinals Thursday at 11 a.m.

"I think Megan [Hensley] did a nice job for us on the mound," said UofL head coach Sandy Pearsall. "She kept us in the game against a tough Syracuse team. We also played well defensively and made the plays we absolutely had to make. We had some timely hitting early on and were fortunate to get two runs. I thought we needed to make better adjustments late in the game, but I'm excited to start the tournament with a win."

Junior Megan Hensley (17-7) scattered two hits and struck out five to earn the complete game win. Freshman Maddy Newman had a hit, a stolen base and a run while senior Jenna Jordan had an RBI double and freshman Kyra Snyder connected on an RBI single to lead the Cardinals at the plate.

Louisville jumped on the scoreboard in the second. Senior Nicole Pufahl earned a leadoff walk and moved to second on sophomore Celene Funke's sacrifice bunt. Snyder's two-out single gave Louisville a 1-0 lead.

The Cards tacked on another run in the third when Newman beat the throw for an infield single, stole second and crossed the plate on Jordan's double to make the score 2-0.

Hensley was tossing a perfect game through the first 10 batters before Alicia Hansen's solo home run in the fourth cut the lead in half. Bryce Holmgren was hit by a pitch and moved to into scoring position on Gabby Teran's sacrifice bunt, but a pop up to Snyder at first base kept the score 2-1.

Hensley and the Louisville defense retired the next six batters before Holmgren led off the seventh with a hit and another Tabor sacrifice bunt sent her to second. A groundout to third and a strikeout ended the game.

AnnaMarie Gatti (12-7) took the loss, allowing two earned runs on four hits and striking out two in 3.0 innings. Syracuse falls to 30-20 on the season.