Sloppy Defense and Two Homers Doom No. 16 Kentucky in Loss

OXFORD, Miss. – The No. 16 Kentucky softball team committed three costly errors and gave up two home runs to No. 24 Ole Miss, as the Wildcats dropped the series opener on Friday night, 7-1 at the Ole Miss Softball Complex.

The series resumes on Saturday with game two of the three-game set at 4 p.m. ET. Saturday’s game will be shown live on ESPNU, ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app with Trey Bender and Leigh Dakich on the call from Oxford. Game three will be at 2 p.m. ET and can be seen live on the SEC Network. 

The loss is charged to Meagan Prince, who falls to 10-4 in the circle this season. Prince got the start and lasted four innings allowing three earned runs on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts. 

Ole Miss’ Kaitlin Lee got her seventh win of the season in the circle allowing one run on five Kentucky hits. Lee went the entire seven innings for her fifth complete game of the season. 

Three. Friday was just the third time all season that Kentucky’s defense committed three or more errors in a game this season. Of note, the seven runs was also the most allowed by Kentucky’s pitching staff this season, tying the seven scored by No. 16 Georgia in game two of that series. 

Sarah Van Schiak’s home run in the bottom of the third inning to score the first three runs of the game was the key play. 

Erin Rethlake was Kentucky’s key player, reaching base in all three of her at bats in the game, including UK’s first hit in the top of the fourth inning. 

In the bottom of the third inning – Rebel leadoff hitter Elantra Cox started the inning with a triple to right field, and then Sarah Van Schiak homered after a walk to Miranda Strother off Meagan Prince. OM 3, UK 0

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Strother led off with a single, and she came around to score on the second home run of the game to Van Schiak – this time off Larissa Spellman. With two outs, the Rebels got three-consecutive base runners off singles and errors to score two additional runs in addition to a wild pitch. OM 7, UK 0

Kentucky got one run in the top of the sixth inning, which began with a one-out single from Katie Reed. Rethlake singled for the second time of the game – and then Alex Martens drove in Reed with a two-out RBI single served into right. FINAL – No. 24 Ole Miss 7, No. 16 Kentucky 1

For the latest on the Kentucky softball team, follow @UKSoftball on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.