A rain-delayed meeting Wednesday night between UK (16-20, 3-6 SEC) and No. 12 U of L (30-2, 4-2 Big East) softball teams once again came down to a late attempt at a rally by the Cats.

Trailing 2-0 entering the top of the seventh, freshman Griffin Joiner and senior Brittany Cervantes battled late into their counts to earn a walk.

Senior Rachel Riley got aboard with help from an error from a Cardinals fielder to load the bases.

Following the loading of the bases by the senior, sophomore Ginny Carroll and junior Alice O’Brien each hit into a fielder’s choice, one to short and the latter to first, to put the Card one-out away from a season sweep of UK.

The would-be winning at-bad in last week’s matchup, sophomore Emily Gaines, finally forced movement on the base pad in earning a walk on a 3-1 count.

With the winning run in scoring position, sophomore Emily Jolly flew out to left field to bring the Cats rally to an end and giving the Cardinals the 2-1 win.

Louisville put runs on the scoreboard early. The Cards connected on a pitch from Riley for a one-out single in the home half of the first. An RBI double moments later scored the games first run for a Louisville lead.

Two innings later the Cards duplicated their efforts in the first with an RBI double for a two run lead.

The Cats picked up only two hits in the game during the fourth when junior Kara Dill and Joiner both struck with infield singles. All batters that followed dropped in order without further advancing any of the runners.

Head coach Rachel Lawson’s club returns home to Lexington for a three game series that begins Friday against South Carolina at the UK Softball Complex. Game one is slated for a 6 p.m. opening pitch and the games on Saturday and Sunday will begin at 1 p.m.