LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Notre Dame Softball team dropped Friday night’s ACC opener to Louisville 9-2 at Ulmer Stadium. The Irish are now 10-11 on the season and 0-1 in conference play.
Kaia Cortes hit her second career home run in the third inning for Notre Dame’s first run.
Brianne Weiss struck out 5 in relief and has now punched out 15 batters in her last three appearances.
How it happened
After a scoreless top of the first, Micaela Kastor trotted out to the circle. The junior came into the game 6-1 with a 3.86 ERA. She struck out her first batter of the game for her 200th career strikeout.
Louisville got on the board first courtesy of a two-run homer from Madison Pickens. The Cardinals led 2-0 after one.
After a walk from Rachel Allen and a single from Anna Holloway; the Irish had two on with one out. But Louisville starter Alyssa Zabala would work out of danger, getting a pop up and a ground ball to end the threat.
The Cardinals put a third run on the board with an RBI single to right field to jump out to a three-run advantage.
In the top of the third, Cortes led off the inning with a solo home run to deep center, carrying out past the high wall for the first Irish run of the game.
In the same half inning, back-to-back singles from Addison Amaral and Paige Cowley and a two-out Rachel Allen walk loaded the bases for Notre Dame. But a flyout to right got the Cardinals out of danger once again.
Brianne Weiss took over in the circle in the bottom of the third. The freshman was coming off a 10 strikeout weekend at the Judi Garman Classic last weekend. She tossed a 1-2-3 inning and struckout two Cardinals in the inning.
Jane Kronenberger led off the top of the fourth with a double to left, a ball that nearly left the ballpark but instead deflected off the left fielder’s glove. After advancing to third on a sacrifice, Mickey Winchell roped a ball into left for an RBI single that brought the Irish within one.
Louisville got the run back on a RBI triple in the bottom of the fifth. The Cardinals added three more in the inning to make it 7-2 after five. Two more runs in the bottom of the sixth made it 9-2.
Game two of the series against Louisville is set for 1:00 p.m. tomorrow and will be broadcasted on ACC Network Extra.