By Gabriel Wiest —

After losing a conference series to Notre Dame, Louisville softball (21-10) rebounded with a 5-2 win over the Indiana Hoosiers (25-10). The victory continues the Cards’ dominance at Ulmer Stadium as their home record sits at 9-1.

The Cardinal offense came into the game swinging, with a home run right off the bat by Celene Funke. It was the junior’s second of both the season and her career.

“To start off with Funke’s home run and then Sidney to get those back-to-back hits, I thought that really sparked us to get us going,” head coach Holly Aprile said.

Indiana answered with a tying run in the top of the second. The biggest play of the matchup followed in the bottom of the third, as redshirt freshman Taylor Roby smashed a three-run homer. This made the score 4-1 with Louisville securing a firm lead.

“I am in love with inside pitches, and I knew the pitcher was coming in so the third one I saw I just took it,” Roby said.

Both teams scored one more run throughout the game, with the Hoosiers’ Grayson Radcliffe hitting a home run and the Cardinals’ junior Caitlin Ferguson scoring a run.

Senior Megan Hensley picked up the win on the mound, moving to 9-1 on the season.

Next up, Louisville travels for a weekend ACC series at No. 24 Virginia Tech from March 29-31.

“We definitely have to prepare for their pitching staff,” Aprile said. “Virginia Tech is very strong, so we have a lot of work to do in terms of being able to produce offense against them, and we have to show up our defense a little bit.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Photos by Adrianna Lynch / The Louisville Cardinal