Kentucky Softball Gets Win on First Day of Ole Miss Series
This is a redemption weekend for the Lady Bat Cats.
After a disappointing trip to Georgia a week ago, No. 17 Kentucky Softball (22-9-1; 5-4 SEC) traveled to Ole Miss (22-16; 2-7 SEC) on Friday night to take on the Rebels at 6 p.m. The ‘Cats are looking to bounce back from a tough series against the ‘Dawgs where they lost the series 2-1.
Tough luck from the plate for cats
The ‘Cats started on the plate first but had no luck off the bat (no pun intended).
Kentucky native Kennedy Sullivan started on the mound for UK. The graduate student retired her first three batters of the game to get her team back on offense.
The bats were not working for the ‘Cats at the top of the second. Although the defense was holding the Rebels to no runs scored, the Ole Miss defense was also standing strong to keep both sides scoreless at 0-0 entering the third.
Sullivan strikes again
As Sullivan continued to kill it from the mound, the Kentucky offense started to pick up the slack on its end at the top of the third. Graduate student and star player Kayla Kowalik led the team off with a single chopper which landed her on first. Up next was junior ball-bomber Erin Coffel who hit her 49th homer of the year to move her up to second on the all-time home run list for Kentucky and put the ‘Cats up 2-0.
Sullivan held the Rebels to no runs in the third but started out strong on offense at the top of the fourth. The Georgetown, KY native was proving to be a force on both sides of the ball when she hit a double to start the fourth for the ‘Cats.
Sophomore Margaret Tobias was up next for Kentucky and hit an RBI single that got overturned at home plate because it was called out. After a long review process due to a challenge given by Kentucky’s Coach Rachel Lawson which made their lead 3-0.
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Kentucky native shows strengths
At the bottom of the fourth, the Kentucky defense gave up a run which cut their lead down 3-1. And then at the top of the fifth, Sullivan continued to prove that she was a softball Swiss army knife by hitting a homer at the top of the fifth which made the ‘Cats lead 4-1 heading into the sixth.
Neither team had much luck on either side of the bat in the sixth. Sullivan recorded her sixth K of the game in the sixth to keep Ole Miss held to one run. At the top of the seventh the score remained 4-1 as the ‘Cats were up to bat and looking to finalize their impending victory.
Unfortunately for Kentucky their bat size shrunk at the top of the seventh and couldn’t pad the lead going into the bottom half of the final inning still up only 4-1. Right off the bat for Ole Miss (again, no pun intended), they hit a ball outside the park to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Cutting it close late
The Kentucky defense began to crumble under pressure as senior Sloan Gayan came in for Sullivan at the bottom of the seventh. Gayan gave up another run to the Rebels which made the score 4-3 with UK only having one out. Finally with one on and two outs, Gayan strikes out the final batter to get the ‘Cats a 4-3 victory.
Up next for Kentucky is another matchup against Ole Miss on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.
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