Recapping Kentucky Softball's Season Heading Into the SEC Tournament

It has been a whirlwind of a season so far for Kentucky Softball.

The Wildcats (30-19-1; 10-14 SEC) are set to begin their postseason on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. EST against the Florida Gators (35-19; 11-13 SEC) in the second round of the 2023 SEC Tournament. Kentucky enters as the No. 9 seed while the Gators are the No. 8 seed. UK is actually coming off a series win over Florida this past weekend, the program’s first over UF since 2011.

So how did we get to this point? After a strong start to the season, UK hit the gauntlet of the SEC as things began to take a turn in the wrong direction. Let’s recap.

Strong start for the ‘Cats

It was a mid-February start for Kentucky as they traveled to multiple out-of-state tournaments to take on various non-conference schools. The ‘Cats began the season ranked No. 17 and beat multiple ranked opponents through the first few weeks of the season. UK even tied a Top 10 ranked Texas team in controversial fashion back on Feb. 12.

Entering March, Kentucky’s record was 10-3-1. The ‘Cats moved up as high as the No. 14 spot in the D1 Softball rankings. Right off the bat, the ‘Cats faced No. 1 powerhouse, Oklahoma on March 3. It was a mercy rule beatdown with the Sooners winning 18-0. But after getting drilled, Kentucky went on to win 11 games in March and only dropped three games during that stretch, although they would lose to Oklahoma again just a day later by a more respectable score of 7-1.

In terms of SEC series for the month of March, the Wildcats took on Missouri to start things off and swept the series on March 12. They played one more SEC series against the Texas A&M Aggies the weekend of March 25 but lost that series two games to one.

Getting into SEC play

Going into April, the gauntlet began right away as the now No. 16 ranked ‘Cats took on No. 10 Georgia in Athens. After losing the first two against the Bulldogs, Kentucky was able to take the last one while still losing the series. It was another quick turnaround the next weekend when UK faced Ole Miss and won the series, 2-1. At this point in April, the ‘Cats were sitting at .500 against SEC competition.

During the weekend of April 14, No. 17 Kentucky battled No. 6 Tennessee and was swept in dominating fashion by the Vols. Next up in the gauntlet was No. 11 Arkansas the following weekend as things continued to trend downward. The ‘Cats dropped three places in the national rankings and lost the series to the Razorbacks 2-1. To round out the SEC series for April, Kentucky traveled to Starkville to play Mississippi State and was shockingly swept by the Bulldogs. The Wildcats’ record in April was just 7-11.

Pitching was an issue in April as the ‘Cats star in the circle, Stephanie Schoonover, went out with a forearm injury at the end of March. Schoonover had been named the National Pitcher of the Week by D1 Softball on February 21 and was also the NFCA National Pitcher of the Week on March 14.

Ending on the right foot

Going into May, Kentucky played its final SEC regular season series against the No. 16 Florida Gators this past weekend. The now-unranked Wildcats took the must-win series over the Gators, 2-1, which positioned themselves for the No. 9 seed heading into the SEC tournament.

It will be a familiar match-up for the ‘Cats on Wednesday, May 10 at the SEC Tournament as they will be playing those same Gators once again, and will look for the same winning outcome. The game will start on the SEC Network this Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. EST.