RECAP: Louisville SB swept in series vs NC State

Daryl FoustMay 7, 2019

The Cardinals flew south for the Derby weekend to face the Wolfpack in a regular season series finale. The team fell by 1 run in each matchup of the series. Its the first sweep of the season for this team. The team finishes the regular season with a 33-20 record, 12-12 in the ACC, 16-5 at home and 7-10 on the road.

Game 1 vs NC State – Friday evening L 3-4
The Cards would fall behind 4-1 to the Wolfpack through 5 innings after giving up a 2 run HR in both the bottom of the first and fifth with Danielle Watson in the circle.
Senior Sidney Melton would drive in the first run, Funke in the fourth and Melton and Snyder would both cross the plate on wild pitches in the sixth and seventh respectively as Louisville attempted to come back on NC State on the road. The offense would not see more than 3 batters at the plate and were held hit-less until the top of the fourth. The Cards had the tying run in scoring position in the top of the seventh with just 1 out but were not able to plate the run.
Melton registered her school-record 29^th stolen base of the season while Funke set UofL’s single-season mark with her 11^th triple of the year.

Game 2 vs NC State – Saturday afternoon L 7-6 11 innings
Homeruns. The Wolfpack needed 2 of them in game 1 to win, game 2 was also decided in extras by a home run from the home team in the bottom of the eleventh. Megan Hensley would homer in the top of the fourth and Rebecca Chung would even the score 3-3 through regulation.
Both teams would plate 3 runs in the top of the ninth when Hensley sac-flied to LF to score Maddy Newman and advance the runners into scoring position. Kyra Snyder would plate the two on board on a single through the left side to put the Cards up 6-3 but NC St responded with 3 runs in the home half of the inning to extend the game before the deciding run being blasted over the LCF wall to clinch the series for the Wolfpack.
Taylor Roby (13-3) took the loss after a valiant effort in the circle, surrendering three earned runs on three hits and striking out five in 10.0 innings.

Game 3 vs NC State – Sunday afternoon L 2-1
NC State was able to score a run in the bottom of the first on a throwing error to jump to a 1-0 lead through 4 complete innings. Madison Cousineau homered to CF to tie it up 1-1 but the Cards gave up the lead in the bottom of the seventh on the second defensive error of the game. 10 runners were stranded on base in the game.
Roby (13-4) took the loss after giving up one unearned run on two hits and striking out one in 3.0 innings of relief.

• Sidney Melton as reached safely in the last 17 games.
• Melton leads the team with a .343 batting average.
• Melton also leads the team with a career-high 32 stolen bases and owns Louisville’s single season record.
• She now has 65 stolen bases in her career, placing her second on Louisville’s all-time list. Audrey Rendon (2004-07) holds the school record with 82.

Daryl Foust

Lifelong fan of the Louisville Cardinals, been covering the teams since 2012, graduated from c/o 2015, Writer/Contributor for TCZ for Men's Soccer, Women's Basketball & Softball since 2016.