UK softball blanks UofL 8-0
The No. 20 Kentucky Wildcats (22-11) blitzed archrival Louisville (24-12) 8-0 before 1,025 fans at John Cropp Stadium on a frigid Thursday evening for their third-consecutive victory in the "Battle of the Bluegrass."
The Cats used a six-run fifth inning to blow open a tight 2-0 game and wrap the contest up two innings earlier than usual.
Junior slugger Abbey Cheek opened up the inning with an uncharacteristic infield single and then a stolen base. After a Jenny Schaper walk, Alex Martens doubled to left field to score Schaper.
Enter freshman and Madisonville, Kentucky native Mallory Peyton. The youngster worked a 2-1 count and then ripped a two-run RBI single to right field to extend the Cats lead to 5-0.
Peyton plated a run with another single earlier in the contest during the second inning. Her three RBI set a career-high and put her total up to 12 on the campaign. She also finished 2-of-3 at the plate, one of six Wildcats to have a multi-hit game; the Cats finished with fifteen base knocks as a team.
"With those two," said head coach Rachel Lawson after the game on Peyton and Lauren Johnson, "the bigger the game, the better they are."
Specifically, on Peyton's progression at the plate, Coach Lawson said, "Mallory is someone that you always know has a shot at getting a hit. She has a hitter's mentality, an RBI mentality, and it was nice to see her get up there and get a hit with two strikes."
However, a beaming Peyton was not concerned about her performance after the game.
"We're the state school, and we wanted to prove that we could beat every team in the state so that win was big for us," she said.
Indeed the Cats did put a hurting on their in-state competition this week, beating Louisville and the Eastern Kentucky Colonels by a combined score of 18-0.
Softball supremacy in the Commonwealth is one of the team's annual goals according to Coach Lawson.
"I always talk to the team and tell them that you want to be the state school; you want to be the team that does the best on the national stage from your home state. In order to do that you have to be a lot of quality softball teams. So I feel good that is something this team takes very seriously. They prepare hard for these games and don't take them for granted."
Peyton was not the only UK player to have a big day at the plate. Martens recorded two doubles and drove in a run. Johnson also went 2-of-3 and plated a run.
Senior pitcher Erin Rethlake (6-3) tossed a five-inning shutout and allowed only four hits after getting shelled by Alabama this past weekend. She threw 63 pitches, 41 in the strike zone, and struck out six Cardinal batters against zero walks.
Rethlake gave credit for the shutout to the stellar defense behind her in what is her final game in the fabled rivalry.
Kentucky got their other runs from a Johnson single in the bottom of the second and then three runs from a pair of singles and a Louisville throwing error after Peyton's strike in the bottom of the fifth.
The Cats will look to complete the week 4-0 on Friday in a doubleheader against the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders with first pitch scheduled for 3 and 5 P.M. respectively.