Cards Down Hilltoppers 7-2

Wednesday, April 3

Bowling Green, KY

6:00 p.m.

University of Louisville

23-13

Western Kentucky

26-6

Louisville

WKU

Taylor Roby pitches the ball during the game against Lipscomb.

Photo by: Adam Creech | Louisville Athletics

April 03, 2019 | Softball

Box Score Louisville 7 - WKU 2

Roby drives in a pair of runs, collects the win in the circle as Louisville ends WKU's 11-game win streak

By: Lori Korte

Freshman Taylor Roby drove in a pair of runs and picked up the win in the circle as the University of Louisville defeated Western Kentucky 7-2 Wednesday evening at the WKU Softball Complex.

Louisville (23-13, 4-5 ACC) will return to Ulmer Stadium this weekend to face 2018 national champion, third-ranked Florida State in a three-game series starting Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Cardinals snapped Western Kentucky's 11-game win streak while outhitting the Hilltoppers by a margin of 7-4. In addition to Roby's performance at the plate, junior Celene Funke collected two hits and freshman Rebecca Chung drew three walks in the contest.

Louisville opened the scoring in the first, capitalizing on a hit, three walks and an error to jump to a 3-0 lead. Funke led off the game with a hit and proceeded to steal second. Walks to senior Megan Hensley and Roby loaded the bases and an error on junior Caitlin Ferguson's fielder's choice saw Funke safe at the plate. Sophomore Kyra Snyder was hit by a pitch and Chung drew a walk to plate two more runs.

The Hilltoppers (26-6) answered in the home half of the first when Rebekah Engelhardt singled, stole second and crossed the plate as Shannon Plese reached on an error to make the score 3-1.

The Cardinals' offense continued with three more runs in the second. Senior Sidney Melton reached on a fielder's choice and Hensley followed with a double to set up Roby's two-run single. Ferguson walked, Snyder singled and Chung walked to load the bases for freshman Cassady Greenwood who drew a walk to bring home Ferguson and push the lead to 6-1.

Western Kentucky added another run in the second with doubles by Jordan Vorbrink and Maddie Bowlds to make the score 6-2.

Danielle Watson led off the seventh by driving a shot over the left field fence. The sophomore's first career home run made the final score 7-2.

Roby (7-1) collected the win after surrendering two runs, one earned, on four hits and striking out two in 5.0 innings. Watson struck out three while retiring all six batters she faced in the final two innings.

Kelsey Aikey (8-4) took the loss after giving up three runs, one earned, on one hit in 0.1 inning. Four different players connected on hits for the Hilltoppers.

NOTES:

Louisville leads the series with Western Kentucky 18-3
Snyder has now reached safely in 11 straight games.
With her run in tonight's game, Melton moves her career total to 135. She is seventh on Louisville's all-time list and needs three more to tie Jennifer Esteban (2010-13) for eighth.
Funke now has a team-best 13 multi-hit games on the season
Roby leads the team with a .375 batting average and a 1.76 ERA.
Chung and Hensley are tied for the team lead with 24 RBIs apiece
Each of Louisville's starting pitchers have now hit at least one home run this season. Hensley leads the team with four, Roby has two and Watson now has one.