By Gavin Lapille
The Louisville women’s softball team opened Big East conference play Friday night, splitting a doubleheader with the St. John’s Red Storm (20-14, 3-3) in Ulmer Stadium. The 20th-ranked Cardinals (21-5, 1-1) won the first game 3-0, but fell short in the second game, 4-1.
“St. John’s came in ready to play ball and certainly did well,” Head Coach Sandy Pearsall said. “They hit the ball well. They executed their gameplan. I can’t really fault my pitching staff. Basically, we didn’t do the job offensively and we had some sloppy defense off and on, more mental mistakes than errors.”
Junior starting pitcher Catherine Bishop (13-2) led the way for the Cardinals in the first game, throwing seven shutout innings while striking out seven and walking only one to earn the win. It was Bishop’s seventh shutout of the season.
“Cat’s been pitching great for us,” Pearsall said.
Brooke McCrain chipped in on the Cards’ victory with a sacrifice fly in the second inning that scored first baseman Sarah Totten to put Louisville up 1-0. The lead was padded in the seventh inning with pinch runner Brittney Counts scoring on a fielder’s choice while catcher Lacy Wood added the final run of the day on an error in the field to make it 3-0.
St. John’s starter Lisa Geer took the loss after giving up three runs, two of which were earned, despite the Cards yielding only a single hit in 5 and 1/3 innings pitched. The Red Storm’s Jo Sherlock was the only player of the game to get multiple hits, going 2-for-3.
In the last game of the double header, the teams went through three scoreless innings before the Red Storm’s Loren Anguiano made a two-run hit off of starting pitcher Kady Garrick in the top of the fourth that also scored Megan Oliver to put St. John’s up 2-0. The Red Storm received a pair of insurance runs in the top of the sixth with Danielle Estrada scoring on an error and Melissa Pilley on a fielder’s choice by Anguiano, her third RBI of the day. St. John’s starting pitcher Kimberly Lerch (7-4) threw seven strong innings while giving up six hits and one run to earn the win.
Cardinal starting pitcher Kady Garrick (5-2) took the loss after going five innings, giving up four hits and three runs. Bishop tossed the final two innings of the night, giving up two hits and an unearned run while striking out three. The Cardinals did manage one run in the bottom of the sixth to make it 4-1 on a RBI single from Woods that scored Audrey Rendon. However, it failed to be enough to earn Louisville another victory.
Despite the team’s disappointing play in the final game, Bishop remains confident about the rest of the team’s season.
“We’re going to do really well,” she said. “I know it hasn’t been the best start imaginable, but we are really excited, and this team is really talented. As soon as we can get a couple of hits together we are going to be really tough to beat, especially with the pitching staff we have. Although they didn’t show it so much today, our defense is fantastic as well. We are going to be okay.”
Pearsall was a bit more critical of her team.
“Our goal is to win the Big East,” she said. “We need to play a lot better ball to do that because this is not an easy conference. You cannot show up and just expect to win. We’ve got to come and execute and hit the ball and play better defense.”
U of L will next take on Seton Hall in a doubleheader Sunday in Ulmer Stadium, then welcomes Eastern Kentucky on April 5.
