The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

CardinalSports.com's Howie Lindsey has been recounting the Good, the Bad and Ugly around local sports in the Louisville SportsReport magazine for years. Check out his takes on this week's news at the University of Louisville.

GOOD - Louisville's out-of-conference slate for next basketball season was already good, but it just got better. According to Brian Hamilton of Sports Illustrated, the Cardinals will face Ohio State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge next season. That means in addition to the 18 ACC games already on the schedule, Louisville will play Minnesota in Puerto Rico, Indiana in New York City, host Kentucky and play Ohio State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

BAD- What a brutal ending to Louisville's softball game against Kentucky last night. The Cardinals were down 3-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning (the final inning in college softball) when they got two home runs to tie the game.

Kelsi Jones' second home run of the game. 11 for the season. Cards trail 3-2 in 7th https://t.co/0QP3R7Lh6n- Howie Lindsey (@howielindsey) May 1, 2014

Louisville's Brittany Duncan clobbers a homer to RF to tie the score 3-3 in the bottom of the 7th. https://t.co/wTi7BW1N0Q- Howie Lindsey (@howielindsey) May 1, 2014

UofL sent the game into extra innings, but couldn't use that momentum to push past the archrival Wildcats. Louisville pitcher Maryssa Baker got into trouble in the top of the eighth, and relief pitcher Rachel LeCoq struggled as well as Kentucky plated four runs in the top of the eighth. Louisville's half of the inning consisted of two pop-up outs on check swings and a pop-fly to left field to end the game.

GOOD - The bright spot was Louisville's newly renovated Ulmer Stadium. The place looks amazing and the new press box and upper concourse areas are perfect. The renovations including extra seats, an upper concourse, a new elevator, three new booths for media, boosters and future broadcasts and new locker rooms for the team.

Good crowd @UofLSoftball at the perfectly renovated Ulmer Stadium. pic.twitter.com/WEcwMxuXFg— Howie Lindsey (@howielindsey) April 30, 2014

UGLY - Former Louisville star and current Detroit Piston point guard Peyton Siva threw out the first pitch at Louisville baseball's game against Ohio State Wednesday night at Jim Patterson Stadium. Siva was laughing as he exited the mound after bouncing his pitch to home plate.

Siva, a fan favorite, kept good humor about the pitch, saying it was "a good bounce pass." Siva was good luck for the Cardinals as they beat the Buckeyes 7-3.

Peyton Sivas opening pitch https://t.co/RF7yt3D58I- Howie Lindsey (@howielindsey) April 30, 2014

GOOD - Rick Pitino and his coaching staff are going after some of the top prospects in the 2015 and 2016 classes. After the first NCAA evaluation period ended last week, Pitino and his coaches have handed out a few new offers and have move up the list for some prime targets, including 2015 7-footer Stephen Zimmerman.

My top 8 (in no particular order). Thank you to all the great programs that expressed interest in me. #blessed pic.twitter.com/LNTHzicfaf- Stephen Zimmerman Jr (@BIGG_ZIMM) April 30, 2014