UofL softball into the Top 25 for the first time in a decade

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — University of Louisville softball is having its best season in over a decade.

The Cardinals sit at 38-9 on the year and third in the ACC with visions of bigger things to come.

Louisville's 38 wins are already more than in any of the previous seven full seasons under head coach Holly Aprile.

"We know who are," sophomore shortstop Taylor Monroe said. "We know what we can control and we know what we can do but we're not focusing on outcomes. It's more being resilient and staying true to ourselves and taking it pitch-by-pitch."

And there are still seven regular season games plus the postseason remaining to add to that win total. It's success that carried over from the end of last season.

"I felt like last season we hit our peak late in the season and it was unfortunately a little too late," senior pitcher Alyssa Zabala said. "Toward the summer, we remembered to like pick up where we left off and when we started, that's exactly what it felt like. It felt like we were just picking up where we left off last year and we're just growing every game. It's awesome to watch and it's awesome to see the Sophomores in their second season doing amazing, killing it, breaking records. It's insane."

The Cardinals offense is 14th nationally scoring 7.5 runs per game and they lead the country in doubles and triples.

And this week, they are in the ESPN/USA softball poll for the first time in ten years at No. 25.

"Yeah, I think it's awesome," junior outfielder Ava Venturelli said. "It was really cool to wake up to that today. We were all in my apartment. Me and my roommates were screaming, yelling, cheering. We've been kinda waiting for it. We've played really well the last few weeks so it was really cool to see. I think it's something that we're excited for and about but we're just going to keep playing how we've been playing."

"It's obviously cool to have the recognition but at the same time just remembering what got us here and continuing to focus on us, not worrying about the outside stuff, " Zybala added. "But its's obviously great to get recognized and I'm excited to see what we can do the rest of the season."

The rest of the season includes two more ACC series, this weekend at home against Syracuse then the following weekend at N.C. State. But Wednesday, the Cardinals can achieve another milestone that hasn't happened since 2012. That's beat Kentucky twice in the same regular season. They host the Wildcats at 6 p.m. at Ulmer Stadium after beating them 8-7 last month in Lexington.