Cards Set for ACC Championship

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Louisville softball team will open the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament on Thursday when the fourth-seeded Cards take on the No. 5 seed Virginia Tech at 1:30 p.m. at Notre Dame's Melissa Cook Stadium.

ACC CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION
Date: May 10-13 2023
Location: South Bend, Ind.
Venue: Melissa Cook Stadium
Coverage: ACCN (Wednesday-Friday); ESPN2 (Saturday)
Live Scoring | Watch vs. Virginia Tech:
ACC Championship Central | Louisville Game Notes
Social Media: Fans can follow Louisville Softball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at LouisvilleSB

NOTES:
• Louisville (35-17) earned the No. 4 seed in the tournament after finishing the regular season with a 16-7 mark in ACC play.
• UofL stands at No. 24 in the D1Softball poll for the second straight week and is ranked No. 25 in the Softball America coaches poll, slipping one spot after debuting at No. 24 last week. The Cardinals are receiving votes in the ESPN.com/USA Softball coaches poll.
• Sarah Gordon was named the ACC Softball Freshman of the Year - she joins Korbe Otis and Taylor Roby on the All-ACC first team. Daisy Hess was selected to the second team while Easton Lotus and Alyssa Zabala earned third team honors. Gordon and Zabala were also named to the ACC All-Freshmen Team.
• Louisville's 16 ACC wins are tied for the most in program history since joining the league in 2015. That same season, the Cardinals finished the season with a 16-7 conference record.
• The Cardinals' 35 wins are the most since 2019 when Louisville finished the season with a 35-23 record after reaching the final game of the Northwestern Regional.
• In 52 games, the Cards have produced 12 shutouts and 13 wins via the eight-run rule.
• Louisville is batting .317 as a team with five players hitting above .300 on the season.
• Sarah Gordon was recently named to the Tucci/NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year Top 25 List
• Taylor Roby is tied for the national lead with a school-record 22 home runs this season and owns the school's career mark with 62. She also stands tied for seventh among the active NCAA career leaders.
• Korbe Otis leads the team with a .399 batting average, 67 hits and an ACC-best 61 runs. The speedy leadoff hitter is a perfect 20-for-20 in stolen bases. Otis leads the ACC and tied for third in the nation with seven triples.
• Otis snapped her school-record on-base streak of 35 games in the 3-2 win at WKU. She has now reached base via a hit or walk in all but three of Louisville's 52 games.
• Alyssa Zabala leads the team with 14 wins and 87 strikeouts in 116 innings while Roby carries a team-best 2.42 ERA with 56 Ks in 110 innings of work.

THE HOLLY APRILE ERA
Head coach Holly Aprile is in her fifth season as UofL's head coach. During her time at the helm – which includes the COVID-19 impacted 2020 season, Aprile guided the Cardinals to 128 wins and an NCAA regional final appearance in 2019. She is one win away from her 400th career victory as a head coach.
• Prior to her arrival at Louisville, Aprile, the 2018 ACC Coach of the Year spent 10 seasons (2009-18) as Pittsburgh's head coach and five years (2004-08) as an assistant. In 2018, she earned ACC Coach of the Year honors after leading the Panthers to the 2018 ACC Coastal Division title and a runner-up finish in the ACC tournament.

CARDS AGAINST THE OPPONENT
VIRGINIA TECH
Series Record: Virginia Tech leads 15-8
Last Meeting: April 22-24, 2022- Virginia Tech swept the three-game series: 4-3, 3-0 and 7-4 in Blacksburg, Va.
Scouting the Hokies: Virginia Tech finished the season with a 36-17 overall record and a 14-10 mark in ACC play. In their final game of the season, Tech rallied to score four runs in the final two innings to beat Liberty 7-5. Prior to that, the Hokies took the first two games of an ACC series against then-No. 6 Clemson by scores of 5-4 and 3-1 before falling 5-4 in the finale.
• Emma Ritter leads the team with a .365 batting average, 45 runs and 16 stolen bases while Bre Peck has belted out 15 home runs and driven in 40.
• Emma Lemley (19-10) has shouldered the bulk of the pitching duties with 262 strikeouts and four shutouts in 37 appearances and 193.0 innings.

LAST UP
Louisville wrapped up the regular season at third-ranked Florida State last weekend. The Cardinals battled, but fell short in all three games.
Game 1: Florida State 6 - Louisville 4
• The Cards staged a late-inning rally, but fell short in a 6-4 loss to third-ranked Florida State Friday evening at JoAnne Graf Stadium.
• Throughout the game, the Cardinals countered Florida State's offense and and loaded the bases in the seventh with the tying run in scoring position and the go-ahead run on first, but the Seminoles prevailed to clinch their second straight ACC regular season title.
Game 2: Florida State 6 - Louisville 4 (11 inn.)
Devyn Flaherty's two-run walk-off home run in the 11th inning lifted the Seminoles to a 6-4 win in game two of the series.
• Louisville built a 4-1 lead through three innings, but the Seminoles (46-8, 21-2) evened the score with three runs in the sixth. With the contest still knotted at 4-4 in the bottom of the 11th, Hallie Wacaser drew a leadoff walk and Flaherty followed with a home run to give the host Seminoles the series win.
Game 3: Florida State 2 - Louisville 1
The Cards wrapped up the regular season with a 2-1 loss at third-ranked Florida State Sunday.
•FSU scored a run in the third and added another in the fifth. Louisville answered in the seventh when Daisy Hess tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Hannah File.

UP NEXT
This year's NCAA softball bracket field of 64 will be revealed at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 14 on ESPN2.

University of Louisville Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Hannah File

Sarah Gordon

Daisy Hess

Easton Lotus

Korbe Otis

Taylor Roby

Alyssa Zabala

Related Videos