Louisville Hits the Road for Georgia Tech

GAME INFORMATION
Date: April 12-14, 2024
Location: Atlanta, Ga.
Venue: Mewborn Field
Twitter Updates: @LouisvilleSB
Coverage: ACCNX
Friday, 6 p.m. – ACCNX Watch Link
Saturday 2 p.m. – ACCNX Watch Link
Sunday 12 p.m. – ACCNX Watch Link

The University of Louisville softball team will embark on a seven-game road swing starting with a weekend Atlantic Coast Conference series at Georgia Tech. The teams will open the weekend Friday at 6 p.m. with game two slated for Saturday at 2 p.m. and the weekend finale taking place Sunday at 12 p.m.

QUICK HITS
• The Cards enter the weekend series with a 23-16 overall record and a 4-8 mark in league play following a 1-2 showing against No. 18 Florida State last weekend.
• The Cardinals are receiving votes in the ESPN.com/USA Today Coaches poll released on April 9.
• Louisville is hitting .285 as a team with four players carrying an average of .300 or better.
• UofL was picked to finish sixth in the 2024 ACC preseason coaches' poll.
• The 2024 campaign marks the 25th season in program history. The program started in 2000 and boasts 15 NCAA tournament appearances and five conference championships.

PLAYER NOTES
• Alyssa Zabala (16-9) carries a 2.67 ERA with 74 strikeouts in 115.1 innings. Her 16 victories lead the ACC and stand seventh in the national standings. The sophomore has earned the last six wins and 13 of the last 14 for the Cardinals.
• Daisy Hess and Riley Frizell are tied for the team lead with a .352 batting average. Hess leads the team with 27 runs, 28 walks and a .489 on-base percentage. The fifth-year senior shortstop has reached base safely via a hit or walk in the last 18 games.
• Frizell has produced a team-best 41 RBIs and nine home runs, both career highs. The senior first baseman is currently on an eight-game hitting streak and leads the team with 10 multi-RBI games.
• Kiley Goff stands tied for second on the team with 23 runs. She has been hit by a pitch 19 times in Louisville's 39 games and leads the nation in that category. Goff has also earned 24 walks and carries a .447 on-base percentage.
• Vanessa Miller leads the team with a career-best 12 stolen bases and stands second on the team with seven homers and 26 RBIs - both are career highs for the senior right fielder.

THE APRILE ERA
• Holly Aprile is in her sixth season as UofL's head coach. During her time at Louisville, which includes the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, the Cardinals have amassed 152 wins and earned a pair of NCAA regional appearances with the 2023 Knoxville Regional and the 2019 NCAA Evanston Regional finals. She was named the Leadership Playbook 2022-23 Collegiate Coach of the Year.
• 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 FIELD - GEORGIA TECH
Series Record: Louisville leads 12-5
Last Meeting: Georgia Tech won 2-1 over Louisville on March 20, 2022.
Scouting the Yellow Jackets: Georgia Tech enters the weekend with a 26-16 overall record following a 9-0 win over Alabama State on Wednesday. The Jackets also bring a 9-6 ACC tally, most recently dropping a series at Syracuse March 28-30.
• Last weekend, Tech stepped away from league play and went 2-2 at Auburn's War Eagle Challenge. In the tournament, the Jackets split a pair of games with Auburn, lost to Louisiana Tech and picked up a win over Troy.
•The Jackets have belted out 74 home runs as a team and stand fourth nationally in home runs per game (1.76).
• Georgia Tech is led by current ACC and NFCA National Player of the Week Mallorie Black who is hitting .378 and leads the ACC with 16 home runs and 52 RBIs. She also stands fourth in the nation in homers and third in RBIs.
• Sophia Voyles leads the pitching staff with a 7-2 record while Blake Neleman has delivered 61 strikeouts in 57.2 innings of work.

UP NEXT
The Cardinals will continue their seven-game road swing with a midweek matchup at Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday.

LAST UP
Last weekend, Louisville played host to No. 18/18 Florida State in a three-game ACC series. Each game was tightly contested with the Cardinals taking the opener in walk-off fashion with Bailee Richardson connecting on an RBI single to break a 4-4 tie with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to give the Cards the 5-4 win.
• In game two, the Seminoles came away with an 8-4 in a contest that featured three lead changes and a tie at 4-4 in the fifth . FSU plated four runs in the final two innings to even the series.
• In Sunday's finale, the Cardinals held the lead twice, but errors proved to be costly as Florida State capitalized on the miscues and registered six hits to claim the series.

WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS
• Riley Frizell led the Cardinals at the plate in their weekend series against No. 18 Florida State with a .500 batting average (4-for-8), .875 slugging percentage and .636 on-base percentage.
• The senior first baseman had at least one hit in each game, including an RBI triple and scored a run in Louisville's 5-4 series-opening win.
• Alyssa Zabala posted a 1.62 ERA in 13 innings on the weekend.
• In the series opener, she picked up her league-best 16th win, allowing four runs, two earned and scattering five hits while striking out five in her sixth complete game of the season.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Riley Frizell

Kiley Goff

Daisy Hess

Vanessa Miller

Bailee Richardson

Alyssa Zabala

University of Louisville Athletics