Bullpen, big third inning help Cats defeat Marshall
A landslide of runs in the 3rd inning and clutch pitching out of the bullpen clinched a 9-4 victory for No. 10/13 Kentucky over the Marshall Thundering Herd in Huntington, West Virginia on Wednesday.
The Wildcats (22-7), winners of 12 straight games, scored seven runs in the top of the 3rd to put the game out of reach early.
The Cats entered the frame leading 2-0, Junior Alex Martens stretched the lead to 3-0 with an RBI double. A hit by pitch and a bunt single loaded the bags for senior Sarah Rainwater, who then drew an RBI walk. With the bases still juiced, sophomore pitcher Grace Baalman singled down the left field line and platted two runners. The Cats added three more runs to the rally to extend their advantage to 9-0: one via an error by Marshall, an RBI single by Jenny Schaper and one-run, RBI single by Kayla Kowalik.
Baalman started the game in the circle and tossed two shutout inning before Larissa Spellman came on in an attempt to close the Herd out.
Spellman gave up a solo home run to Marshall in the bottom half of the inning but cruised through the rest of the batter's she faced. She ran into trouble in the 4th, though.
The senior walked the leadoff batter, and after a rare error from Katie Reed, the Herd had two runners aboard. Both came home off an RBI single. Spellman forced two outs before giving up another RBI single.
Freshman Tatum Spangler came in to end the inning, sending Spellman to the dugout after 1.2 innings of work in which she gave up one earned run on four hits.
Spangler (3-0) and fellow freshman Megan Schorman closed out the game with 3.2 innings of clean work, though Spangler did give up two hits.
Senior Abbey Cheek swatted her seventh homer of the season, a two-run bomb in the top of the 1st, to give the Cats the lead and up her career total to 48 dingers, tying Brittany Cervantes for the most in school history.
Kentucky had 10 hits as a team and was lead by Schaper with two. The Cats catcher was the only player in blue and white to record a multi-hit game.
The Cats return home on Friday to open a three-game SEC series with the Missouri Tigers on Friday at 6 p.m.