Your University of Louisville softball team upset two seed South Florida 5-1 to advance to Saturday's Big East Championship game in South Bend, Ind.
The third-seeded Cardinals will now face No. 4 Notre Dame at 5:30 in a rematch of last year's championship game, in which the Irish prevailed 1-0. Notre Dame advanced to the title game with an 8-2 upset of top seed Depaul.
After falling behind 1-0 early, U of L took the lead for good in the third when Melissa Roth doubled in Candi Hicks and Audrey Rendon, both of whom had reached on singles.
The Cards then busted the game open in the top of the seventh with a solo home run by Hicks, and then a two-run shot over the fence in left-center by Kristi Cunningham.
Kristen Wadwell (14-8) went the distance for Louisville, allowing one unearned run on six hits and striking out five.
U of L hurler Kristen Wadwell is hella smooth
"I'm really proud of how our team came out and played today," said U of L head coach Sandy Pearsall. "We made the adjustments offensively to hit South Florida's strong pitching staff. Kristen Wadwell did an outstanding job and pitched an outstanding game. We look forward to playing in the championship game tomorrow."
This is the third straight season that Louisville has advanced to their conference championship game. The Cards fell to Notre Dame a year ago, and lost to Depaul 6-2 in the finals of the 2005 Conference USA Tournament.
I'm not saying that the Big East needs to rethink the way they handle their postseason softball tournament, but it does seem a bit absurd that Depaul can go 20-0 in the conference and be forced to play in what is essentially an away game in their second postseason contest.
Of course the Blue Demons are going dancing regardless, so the big loser here is Louisville, which has to defeat Notre Dame to advance further into the postseason. You can see if they do so at 5:30 on CSTV.
Here's to hoping the gals can buck the odds tomorrow afternoon.