Syracuse Softball Blown Out in Opener Against Louisville
By Anthony Vazquez | @Ant_Vazquez3
LOUISVILLE, KY – Syracuse dropped yet another ACC matchup Friday night after a lifeless 8-0 blowout to Louisville.
The loss means the ‘Cuse is still toiling at the bottom of the ACC standings with a disappointing 3-11 record. Despite its ugly showing against rather familiar opponents, S.U. is still four games over .500.
In today’s series opener, nothing was going right on either side of the ball. The hitting was absolutely shutdown as ace Taylor Roby played poor hitters to the tune of a five-inning complete game shutout. She was so dominating, that all the lineup could do was scatter a couple of singles off the bats of Laila Alves and Paris Woods.
Roby managed to toss a stellar performance despite striking out just two hitters. Instead of controlling at-bats with pure power, she collected her outs thanks to pitch placement and weak contact.
The senior’s grip on the game didn’t loosen when she came up to the plate. The veteran hitter smashed a two-run homer to left-center off of ‘Cuse starter Ariana Adams in the second inning.
Outside of that homer sent into orbit, Adams was quite effective through her first four innings. It wasn’t until the fourth where things started snowballing fast. New 2B Yamila Evans committed an error to bring in Louisville’s third run of the ballgame.
Seeing her pitcher struggling mightily, coach Deopking chose to let her starter work out of her struggles. That decision came back to bite her as Adams proceeded to give up a two-run single and a three-run homer to star hitter Carmyn Greenwood.
It was exit stage left for the veteran once the ball was sent over the fence. Kaia Oliver cleaned things up by getting out of the ugly inning, but it was all for naught at the end of the day.
Evans, Alves, and Padilla went down 1-2-3 against Roby to seal the deal in just five innings. The great thing about Softball is that if you have a stinker one day, you can come right and make things right the next.
Lindsey Hendrix should draw the start tomorrow with Kaia Oliver available to pitch in relief if needed. Syracuse’s flimsy pitching rotation means Hendrix will once again get a longer leash than normal pitchers. With no rain in the forecast this weekend, coach Doepking will be forced to navigate through a three game series with just two reliable pitchers.
