By Matt Bradshaw —

After starting the season with a 13-game road trip, softball returned home for the Cardinal Classic. Louisville swept the tournament and its first four games at Ulmer Stadium under new head coach Holly Aprile.

“I thought, overall, we did a lot of good things,” Aprile said about her team. “It’s always good to win. I think we’ve got to learn from some stuff we did and keep getting better, but I was proud of them.”

The Cards beat Indiana State 7-1 in the home opener, powered by six runs in the bottom of the sixth. Junior Celene Funke batted 3-for-4 with a triple, while senior Megan Hensley got the win on the mound and redshirt freshman Taylor Roby the save.

“We have good heads-up base running,” Aprile said. “We made a couple mistakes, but I think we’re just going to keep getting better. It’s being resilient, being able to make adjustments so that we don’t make them again.”

Louisville followed with a 5-3 victory over Missouri. Sophomore Danielle Watson posted her fourth win on the mound and freshman Rebecca Chung slammed her third home run of the season.

Indiana State lost to Louisville 3-0 in the teams’ second meeting. Roby pitched for the win and junior Caitlin Ferguson hit her second homer this season.

Louisville blanked IUPUI 3-0 in the finale of the tournament. Hensley led the way at the mound and plate, picking up the win with five strikeouts and batting 2-for-3 with a RBI.

Louisville softball, now 11-6 on the season, stays at Ulmer Stadium to host Lipscomb on Wednesday, March 6 at 3 p.m.

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File Photo / The Louisville Cardinal