Softball 2012

[agibson]

3-0, going into the bottom of the 3rd.  Video's working fine - quite a nice feed, in fact.

Fantastic to see the shots of campus.  Even if it is just the old dorms.

[vu72]

Nice broadcast.  Very professional.  Valpo kids?  Nice win, on to tomorrow!

[bbtds]

The flames will burn up the Valpo FOLDERS. Wait till next year. BOOK IT!

your book went up in flames 3-0. 

nothing like playing at home and having your ace pitcher in a groove.

[valpopal]

So it's Butler tomorrow at 11.  I see where the second games tomorrow will start at 7:30 which means they must have brought in lights.  The field doesn't have permanent lighting does it?  Wonder how it looks lit up!

Yes, there are a lot of impressive-looking temporary lights set up. The field will look terrific under lights.

It has looked terrific already. They used the lights the last two nights for impromptu team practices to test any blinding spots from the lights (and yes, I mean "blinding" and not "blind"). It was a beautiful sight. With a little fog and some dew on the grass, it looks as glorious as the Field of Dreams.

Here is a photo of the softball field I took at sunset this evening:

[KL31NY]

Nice broadcast.  Very professional.  Valpo kids?  Nice win, on to tomorrow!

The announcers thus far have been WVUR people from the campus radio station. Keaton Gillogly is on tap to the championship game(s) Saturday. The camera people have been Valpo students as well. The people working the video feed (the computer seems to be a little old and finicky, hence the problems earlier in the tournament) are the usually people who control all the other HLN stuff. One is a Valpo senior with a real knack for visual media, and the other is an older Valpo alum who's been working on VU's HLN games for 2 or 3 years now.

Here is a photo of the softball field I took at sunset this evening:

What a sight that is. It'd be nice to have more opportunities for games under the lights in the near future, softball or baseball.

[StlVUFan]

The PA announcer sounded like Aaron Levitt.  Confirm/Deny.

[KL31NY]

The PA announcer sounded like Aaron Levitt.  Confirm/Deny.

Confirmed. For clarification if needed, the announcers I described earlier where the HLN announcers.

[agibson]

Valpo wins 10-0!  Throwing a two-hitter.

We play the loser of Butler-Loyola, at 4 PM.

Now, the eternal question of softball tournaments.  Is it better to play games back-to-back, or with a long break in between?

I'm not sure that I'll make it back tomorrow, but I think I'll bring the kids out at 4 PM today.

Go Valpo!

[agibson]

Butler rematch!  Loyola knocked them off 8-1.

If we get past Butler (starting in 20 minutes - see you there!) we'd have to beat #2 seed Loyola twice in a row, tomorrow.

[valpotx]

Doesn't it feel good to eliminate Butler from tournaments?  A showdown between the top 2 seeds tomorrow, and hopefully we bring our bats to win 2!

[valpotx]

What a way to get our first HL NCAA bid!  3 straight walk off wins, congrats ladies!

[vu72]

FANTASTIC!!!  Now we can get setshot to officially apologize to the ladies!!  And, make a big contribution to our first NCAA tourney participant!  Thanks in advance setshot!   

[setshot]

Hell, my comments relative to being FOLDERS was to light a FIRE under the ladies,or should I say a FLAME under the ladies. Looks like it worked.Seriously though, a great accomplishment. CONGRATULATIONS!

[vuweathernerd]

way to go ladies!

[valpopal]

My congrats to the team! I am especially pleased to see the tournament MVP go to Angie, who has always been a wonderful student-athlete representative for VU off the field as well!

[bbtds]

Couldn't of happened to a finer and more deserved group of ladies who defined well the three areas that Valpo and the Horizon League embrace, scholarship, talented athleticism and giving back to the community.

Angie Doerffler, a graduate of a Lutheran high school, put the icing on the cake by being the 2 games MVP and showing her prowess in all three areas mentioned above.

To me the area that Angie has truly excelled is not one mentioned above or shown on the softball field. It's the area of faith in her Lord and through that showing faith in her boyfriend, Tommy Kurth, who faces a long uphill battle to regain his form on the basketball court. Through Angie's belief in not only herself and her ability on the softball field but her faith that Mr. Kurth will come through for himself and on the basketball court that Angie can make us all beam with pride for Dear Old Valpo but also for the future she brings of being an accomplished alum in whatever field she chooses.

Ok, I'll stop being so sappy.......... 

[okinawatyphoon]

so this is softball's first NCAA appearance? maybe I missed this earlier, but we never won in the mid-con? or does the summit not have an auto bid?

[KL31NY]

First NCAA berth. We made the 2004 Mid-Con Championship "Series," but we lost the first game of potentially two title games to Centenary, who had also put us in the losers' bracket earlier in the tourney. Can't tell you if we were ever that close before, maybe North Star, but I'm not too positive

[StlVUFan]

Interesting stats over at College Sports Madness: http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/4006

By The Numbers -- not bad at all!

[StlVUFan]

And they're on TV!  ESPN2 on Friday (I believe?).  How cool is that?

I was kind of hoping for the Columbia regional.  Only 2 hours away from where I live, I might have actually tried to make the trip.

Make the most of it, Ladies!

[boomdad]

Louisville, UK and Mich? Its gonna be one hell of a weekend

[agibson]

Interesting stats over at College Sports Madness: http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/4006

By The Numbers -- not bad at all!

Remarkable offensive numbers!  And the DP number's great too.

By the Numbers:
Batting Average: .308 (25th in nation, 2nd in conference)
Earned Run Average: 2.60 (73, 1)
Fielding Percentage: .974 (14, 1)
Scoring Offense: 6.00 (14, 1)
Home Runs per Game: 0.98 (27, 1)
Doubles per Game: 1.66 (3, 1)
Triples per Game: 0.17 (78, 3)
Stolen Bases per Game: 0.87 (141, 4)
Slugging Percentage: .487 (17, 1)
Double Plays per Game: 0.42 (20, 2)

[bbtds]

From University of Louisville Athletics website:

The University of Louisville softball team earned the No. 15 seed in the NCAA tournament and has been selected as a host site for NCAA softball regional May 18-20 at Ulmer Stadium. The Cards (53-3) will face Valparaiso (42-17) Friday at 7 p.m. with Kentucky (29-28) and Michigan (39-15) meeting at 4:30 p.m. Friday. All Louisville Regional games will be carried on ESPN2 or ESPN3.

This marks Louisville's ninth consecutive NCAA tournament bid and the third time it has served as a regional site host. The Cards also hosted in 2011 and 2009.

The winner of the Louisville regional meet up with the winner from the Tuscaloosa region which features the No. 2 seed Alabama who will play UT-Martin. Georgia Tech and South Alabama will face off in the other first round game of that regional.

"We are excited to be at home with Valparaiso, Michigan and Kentucky this weekend. This is a tough region and we have to take it one game at a time, just like we have all season," said U of L head coach Sandy Pearsall. "We hope the fans will come out and enjoy some exciting softball."

Louisville Regional - May 18-20 at Louisville, Ky.
No. 15 seed Louisville* (53-3) vs. Valparaiso (42-17)
Kentucky (29-28) vs. Michigan (39-15)

NCAA Regional Schedule
Friday, May 18
Game 1 - Kentucky vs. Michigan - 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Game 2 - Valparaiso vs. Louisville - 7:00 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Saturday, May 19
Game 3 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 - 1:00 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Game 4 - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 - 3:30 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Game 5 - Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4 - 6:00 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Sunday, May 20
Game 6 - Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5 - 1 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)
Game 7 - (If necessary) - 3:30 p.m. (ESPN2/ESPN3)

Ticket Information
Adult All-Session $25.00
Child All-Session $15.00
Student/Senior All-Session $15.00
Adult Single Session $10.00
Child Single Session $7.00
Student/Senior Single-Session $7.00
Group and berm: $5.00 Single Session only

About Louisville
Louisville earned the BIG EAST Conference automatic bid by defeating Notre Dame 4-3 Saturday. The Cardinals also won the league regular season title with a 20-2 mark in conference play.

U of L is led offensively by senior Kristin Austin who is batting .402 with 44 runs and eight triples on the season. Junior Alicja Wolny follows at .377 with 13 doubles, eight home runs and 37 RBIs. Sophomore Taner Fowler is hitting .372 and has a team-best 12 home runs and 50 RBIs. Senior Tori Collins (24-1) carries a 1.25 ERA with 179 strikeouts in 167.1 innings.

http://www.uoflsports.com/facilities/lou-facilities-ulmer-stadium.html

Ulmer Stadium, home of U of L softball sits between Brandeis Ave, Floyd St, Arthur St & the U of L Track and Field Stadium. Arthur St. sits just west of I-65. Refer to the directions below for the parking garage.

http://www.uoflsports.com/school-bio/maps-directions.html

http://ulcgis.org/mapbook/BelknapAthletics.pdf (#11 is Ulmer Stadium, the parking garage is across Floyd St from #10)

[valpotx]

This will be a cool experience for them.  Each game will be on either ESPN or ESPN2 as well, which I think is only the case with 3 total regions of the 16!

[vuweathernerd]

That's an insane season record for louisville. 53-3? incredible. and we have the second best record in the regional, ahead of both michigan and kentucky. way to go girls!