The University of Louisville softball team will host Syracuse for its last three home games of the 2026 season, according to an April 23 announcement. The No. 25-ranked Cardinals enter the series with a record of 38-10 overall and a 13-5 mark in Atlantic Coast Conference play, following a recent loss to Kentucky.
The upcoming games are scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m., and Sunday at noon. Sunday’s game will include pregame ceremonies honoring four Louisville seniors: Bri Despines, Easton Lotus, Chelsea Mack, and Alyssa Zabala.
Chelsea Mack leads Louisville with a .448 batting average and has recorded 74 hits, scoring 55 runs with 37 stolen bases—ranking second nationally in steals. Madison Pickens follows closely with a .438 average and leads the team in RBIs with 64. Other key contributors include Despines (.406 average) and Camryn Lookadoo (.403 average), who tops the team in doubles.
Louisville currently leads the ACC in stolen bases (105) and triples (25), while ranking second in on-base percentage (.449) and batting average (.356). Five players have driven in at least 30 runs this season, while seven have notched at least 40 hits. On the mound, Anna Wise holds a staff-best earned run average of 2.9 across eight wins, while senior Alyssa Zabala has tallied a team-high twelve victories along with eighty-five strikeouts over more than one hundred innings pitched.
Syracuse arrives for the series holding an overall record of eighteen wins against twenty losses (4-12 ACC), after splitting a doubleheader against Buffalo earlier this week. The Orange are led by pitcher Madison Knight (4.10 ERA) and Julianna Verni (4.63 ERA); together they have thrown eleven complete games this year. Offensively, Jadyn Burney leads Syracuse hitters with a .324 batting average and is perfect on nineteen stolen base attempts—leading the conference by percentage.
Shannon Doepking is serving her eighth season as head coach for Syracuse; she has compiled a career record of one hundred seventy-five wins with the Orange.
