Cards Cap Weekend with 14-0 Win Over Mercer

Sunday, March 10

Auburn, AL

11:00 a.m.

University of Louisville

Mercer

Megan Hensley pitches against Indiana State

Photo by: Adam Creech | Louisville Athletics

March 10, 2019 | Softball

Box Score UL 14 - Mercer 0

Hensley tosses a shutout, drives in three to help lead the Cards on the day

By: Lori Korte

AUBURN, Ala. – The University of Louisville softball team wrapped up the War Eagle Challenge with a 14-0 win over Mercer Sunday morning at Auburn's Jane B. Moore Stadium.

Senior Megan Hensley (5-1) tossed a complete game shutout while scattering two hit and striking out five. She helped her own cause by going 3-for-3 with three-RBIs and a run at the plate. Junior Celene Funke went 3-for-4 with three runs and an RBI and sophomore Jordyn Wolfe tallied a career-high three-RBIs.

The Cardinals (15-7) jumped to an early lead after junior Celene Funke led off the bottom of the first with a hit and proceeded to steal second and third and crossed the plate on senior Megan Hensley sacrifice fly. Senior Sidney Melton walked, stole second and took third on Hensley sac fly and then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of freshman Rebecca Chung.

Louisville tacked on three more runs in the second when sophomores Kyra Snyder and Riley Schindler were each hit by a pitch. One out later, Funke drilled a single which plated Snyder. An error on the play sent Schindler home. Melton followed with an RBI hit, bringing the score to 5-0.

The third inning brought nine more runs as Louisville collected five hits including Wolfe's first career triple. Back-to-back walks issued to Taylor Roby and Snyder started the inning. A wild pitch advanced the runners and sophomore Jordyn Wolfe's groundout plated Roby. Sophomore Riley Schindler followed with an RBI hit. Funke singled and Melton walked to load the bases for Hensley's two-run double. Ferguson walked to load the bases. After an RBI single by Chung, Roby was hit by a pitch to send Hensley home. Snyder added a groundout RBI and Wolfe followed with a two-run triple to bring the finally tally to 14-0.

Bailey Pattison (4-6) took the loss, allowing five runs, four earned, on four hits and striking out one in 2.0 innings. The Bears drop to 10-15 on the season.

Sunday's game capped a 4-1 performance on the weekend for the Cardinals who outscored opponents 37-7. Head coach Holly Aprile was pleased with her squad's overall efforts which included three shutouts and a pair of run-rule wins.

"I thought our defense and pitched worked really well in tandem together," said Aprile. "Getting a shutout these days is pretty difficult, so I was really happy with the way we played poised defense. In Saturday's game against Radford, they had the bases loaded a couple of times and we got out of those jams and I think that's our confidence level and our poise getting better on defense and feeling better about what we're doing and executing defensively. I was pretty proud of that.

Although our pitchers did a really good job this weekend, I feel that we can do a better job of being ahead of counts in some places and getting our walk totals down, but I think that overall we're competing out there and we know what we need to do, it's just bringing up that execution a little bit.

We have a lot of speed and we need to be able to get on base in order to utilize it. I think that we did a really good job of being head's up and seeing the ball in front of us and taking an extra base when we have the opportunity."

LOUISVILLE NOTES:
• Hensley leads the team with 19 RBIs.
• Hensley now has 148 career RBIs, placing her sixth on UofL's career list. She needs nine more to move into a tie for fifth with Maryssa Becker (2014-17).
• Hensley stands in seventh place on Louisville's career list for victories with 46.
• Hensley, Roby and Danielle Watson have five wins each.
• Watson leads the pitching staff with 54 strikeouts in 55.1 innings and a .192 opponent batting average.
• Melton is currently on a seven-game hitting streak while Funke has had a hit in the past six games.
• Melton increased her career run total to 126 and stands eighth on Louisville's all-time list in that category. She needs five more to tie Chelsea Bemis (2008-11) for seventh.
• Funke now leads the team with a .382 batting average, 29 hits, 20 runs and eight stolen bases.
• Ferguson has reached base via a hit or walk in the last 10 games while Snyder and Melton have each reached base in the last seven games.