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Final
Now, Is Kentucky's season over or do they have to play the wait and see game to see if they make it into the CWS?
good thing they beat the Ville in basketball cause they havent beat them in anything else this year i think, come on Cats...
The University of Louisville softball team, still smarting from a questionable call in a loss to Michigan earlier in the day, got off to a quick start and held on for a 3-2 victory over Kentucky on Saturday night in the NCAA Tournament's Louisville Regional.

The victory set up a rematch with Michigan in today's regional final at 1 p.m. The Cardinals (55-4) need to beat the Wolverines (41-15) twice to advance to their first super regional.

"If we pitch well, play our defense like we can and bring the offense that we've had all year long, it's doable," UofL coach Sandy Pearsall said. "I believe in this team, and I believe that they have the strength to win the finals."

The loss eliminated UK (30-30), which had bounced Valparaiso 5-4 earlier Saturday to set up the showdown with UofL.

The Cards came out aggressively against UK following their 2-1 loss to Michigan in the winners' bracket game. Powered by Alicja Wolny's 10th home run, they chased UK pitcher Rachel Riley after the first inning by scoring three runs before a record crowd of 3,124 at Ulmer Stadium.

"Of course, we were a little angry ourselves with that Michigan game, but it was left behind us," Wolny said.

It looked as if the Cards would leave the Cats behind in the second inning, when they loaded the bases with one out. But Wolny fouled out, and Taner Fowler, who leads the team in RBIs, struck out.

"I was a tad unhappy — we loaded the bases and did nothing with one out," Pearsall said. "I felt like that was a good part of our lineup. I felt like we should have garnered one or two runs there. We can't miss opportunities like that (today)."

The play that stung UofL came with two out in the eighth inning of Saturday's first game. With Michigan's Ashley Lane on first base, Amy Knapp singled to right field. Lane sprinted for third as Kristin Austin came up firing.

Her throw clearly beat Lane, and the TV replay showed third baseman Katelyn Mann made the tag in time. But umpire Steve McCrillis ruled Lane safe.

"I thought we got the girl," Pearsall said. "The umpire informed me that the tag was behind and her hand was already in. There's not a whole lot we can do in arguing thttp://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120519/SPORTS02/305190048/Louisville-softball-beats-Kentucky-3-2-headed-regional-final?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sportshat call; it's not going to get changed. I just said we need to hang in there."
LOUISVILLE — Kentucky exited from the NCAA softball regional here in fitting, if frustrating fashion Saturday.

A 3-2 loss to archrival Louisville continued a trend that saw every game here Friday and Saturday decided in walk-off fashion and/or by a one-run margin.

UK, which lost to Michigan on a two-out, two-run walk-off double Friday, rallied from an early 3-0 deficit. Continuing the dramatics, the game ended with Ginny Carroll's bid for a walk-off two-run homer dying in the glove of the left fielder near the warning track.

U of L (55-4) advanced to Sunday's regional finals against Michigan. UK's season ended with a 30-30 record.

Coach Rachel Lawson saw the break-even record and gritty final game as appropriate "for what this team has done over the last month."

U of L ace Tori Collins improved her record to 25-1.

After Louisville lost 2-1 to Michigan earlier in the day, first baseman Alicja Wolney made a promise. "We're going to win these next three games," she said. "I guarantee it."

With a stadium record crowd of 3,124 watching, she delivered.

Louisville scored three runs in the first inning. Wolny, the hero of Friday's victory over Valparaiso with a walk-off three-run home run, hit a two-run shot. The long arcing fly ball went over the 12-foot high chain-link fence in left-center.

When asked if she fulfilled her promise, Wolny said, "Oh yeah. Yes, sir."

After two walks and a single loaded the bases, Louisville got a third run when Chanda Bell threw a wild pitch that sailed several feet over the catcher's outstretched glove.

Rachel Riley took over for Bell in the second. She kept UK in the game, limiting U of L to two singles the remaining six innings and at one point retiring 13 straight batters.

UK did not hit a fair ball to the outfield until the fifth inning. Leadoff hitter Brittany Cervantes poked an opposite-field single down the right-field line with one out for Kentucky's first hit.

One out later, freshman Griffin Joiner hit a long home run caught by a man on the center-field TV camera platform. That reduced UK's deficit to 3-2.

Kentucky threatened in the sixth. After an error by the second baseman, U of L replaced Collins with redshirt sophomore Chelsea Leonard, who had pitched 22⁄3 hitless innings against UK in the regular season.

After giving up a single, Leonard retired pinch-hitter Ashleigh Gustafson (1-for-16 career hitter) on a foul-out to the catcher. No. 9 hitter Emily Jolly ended the inning by popping out to the first baseman.

Carroll's bid for a walk-off two-run homer fell short as Louisville's left fielder made the catch near the warning track.

Kentucky advanced to the game against Louisville by beating Valparaiso 5-4 earlier in the day. With starter Rachel Riley retiring the first 12 hitters, UK appeared to breeze to a blowout victory in a region that saw the first three games decided in walk-off fashion.

But two UK errors helped Valpo rally for four runs in the fifth inning. That brought on Bell, who got the final seven outs. In that span, only one Valpo hitter got the ball out of infield.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/05/19/21942...rylink=cpy
Strikeout King Wrote:Now, Is Kentucky's season over or do they have to play the wait and see game to see if they make it into the CWS?

It's over. In softball they have 16 4-team double elimination regionals, then 8 best of 3 series with the 16 regional winners. Then the 8 winners of the super regionals advance to the college world series.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After yet another historic season in Kentucky softball history under the guidance of fifth-year head coach Rachel Lawson in which UK qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-consecutive season, the 2012 season came to a close Saturday night with Kentucky falling 3-2 to No. 15 Louisville in an elimination game in front of a stadium-record crowd of 3,124 people at Ulmer Stadium.

Kentucky finishes the season with a 30-30 record on the 2012 campaign including another year with an above .500 mark in the Southeastern Conference going 15-13 in the conference. With the win, Louisville improves to 55-4 on the season and moves on to the regional final Sunday afternoon against Michigan.

The loss concludes the careers for the 2012 senior class who simply changed the Kentucky softball program forever. UK's six-member class is the all-time winningest in school history with 136 career wins. It is the only class to appear in postseason play in every season of its career. Brittany Cervantes finishes as UK's all-time leader in home runs and RBI. Riley and Chanda Bell formed the winningest pitching tandem in school allure and the duo ranks among the top-five in every pitching category in the history of the program. Macy Allen, Ashleigh Gustafson and Erika Silence each contributed to monumental Wildcat victories along the way as well.

Riley retired 13 Louisville batters in a row in a stretch spanning from the closing two outs of the second inning to the third batter of the sixth inning. In that capsule of the game, Riley struck out three in six-innings of flawless relief.

Freshman Griffin Joiner led the bats with a two-run homer in the fifth frame for UK's lone tallies of the game.

The Cards plated all three of its runs in the top of the first frame. Alicja Wolny connected for a two-run homer after the visitors earned a leadoff slap-single to begin the game. After a pair of walks bookending a single to load the bases, a wild pitch allowed Taner Fowler to score from third to up the UL lead to 3-0. The run would eventually become the difference in the contest.

Kentucky's defensive prowess kept the Wildcats in the hunt, including freshman Kara Howard making an over-the-shoulder catch on a ball hit to the ball in deep center in the opening inning. Sophomore Ginny Carroll also got in on the act, corralling an excellent catch jockeying with the left field fence and made the catch in foul ground up against the wall. Cervantes and junior Kara Dill made several plays fielding choppers through the left side of the infield, and sophomore Lauren Cumbess snatched two crucial foul balls for outs.

Louisville starter Tori Collins carried Kentucky hitless into the bottom of the fifth when Cervantes broke-up the no-hit bid when she blooped a single over the head of UL's Wolny for the Cats first hit of the game. Cervantes then advanced to second on a wild pitch with one out. On a 3-1 pitch, Joiner launched a pitch to deep center field over the wall for a two-rum bomb. The homer was the fourth of the season for the Hopkinsville, Ky., native and cut the Louisville lead to 3-2 through five innings.

Riley led off the bottom of the sixth by reaching on a Louisville error. Pinch runner Sarah Frazer then swiped second on her first stolen base of her career. Louisville would then turn to a new pitcher in sophomore Chelsea Leonard. Leonard would face Cumbess as her first batter who singled into center to put the runners on the corners. Kentucky would leave the runners stranded to close the sixth in its best chance to knot the score.

The Louisville regional winner will be decided Sunday afternoon between (1) Louisville and (2) Michigan with Louisville needing to take both games from the Maize and Blue in order to advance to the Super Regionals. The opening game will commence at 1:00 p.m. ET and air live on ESPN2.

For continuing coverage of the 2012 UK softball postseason, log on to UKathletics.com.

http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/w-soft...12aab.html
55-4, 30-30 really?
Game much?
Was a fun game to watch!

Lady Cards are good.