Virginia falls 5-4 in series opener at Louisville

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The Virginia softball team (26-22, 12-10 ACC) fell in the series opener at Louisville (25-20, 9-10 ACC) on Friday as the Cardinals walked things off with a 5-4 victory at Ulmer Stadium.

Virginia struck first, scoring in the second inning on a single to left from Bailey Winscott combined with a fielding error that brought home Abby Weaver. It continued with a second run on an RBI single up the middle from Leah Boggs that scored Winscott and gave Virginia the 2-0 lead.

Louisville answered in the third, starting a rally with a triple off the wall in center field before a single pushed the first run home. With two outs, the Cardinals pushed in front with back-to-back doubles to take the 3-2 lead.

The Cavaliers regained the lead in the fifth with a two-RBI triple to right from Katie Goldberg. Winscott and Gabby Baylog scored on the Goldberg hit after both reached on walks.

Louisville then walked it off in the seventh with a two-RBI single through the left side from Kendall Smith. Back-to-back walks to open the seventh sparked the rally for the Cardinals.

Mikayla Houge (9-5) took the loss in relief, allowing the two runs on one hit with a pair of walks and two strikeouts. She worked 3.0 innings in relief after entering the game to start the fourth inning.

NOTES ON THE GAME

• Virginia dropped a game for the first time this season when leading after five innings.

• UVA is now 19-1 when leading after five innings this season.

• Aly Rayle faced two batters in the seventh inning after entering with two on in relief of Houge.

• It is the second time in the last three meetings that Louisville has won 5-4 going back to last season.

FROM HEAD COACH JOANNA HARDIN

“I thought we came out and executed really well at the plate against Taylor Roby and got some good swings off early, had some quality at bats and hit a lot of balls hard. We put up the four runs and we feel good about our chances any time we put up four runs against any opponent. Louisville had some timely hits and at the end we didn’t slam the door. The walk in the seventh inning came hurt and came back to bite us; good teams will find a way to score in those situations. We have to clean things up on defense, but there were some positive things to take away and we’re excited to get after it again tomorrow against a really good opponent.”

UP NEXT FOR THE HOOS

Virginia and Louisville will return to action on Saturday (April 30) in a 4 p.m. contest on ACC Network.