The Kentucky softball team will hit the road to play five Southeastern Conference games in four days as they travel to Arkansas and No. 6 LSU. UK and Arkansas will play a three-game set, Mar. 31-Apr. 1, while the Wildcats and Tigers will play a doubleheader on Tuesday, Apr. 4, in Baton Rouge. Sunday?s matchup at Arkansas will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Net.
This weekend marks the 29th meeting between UK and Arkansas. The Lady Razorbacks lead 17-10 in the all-time series after taking two out of three from the Wildcats last season in Lexington.
Arkansas has dropped seven straight games and is 12-30 overall this season. They lost a doubleheader to Auburn earlier this week and are winless in the SEC with a 0-10 league record. Dayna Huckabee leads the Lady ?Back offense with five home runs, 23 RBI and 20 runs scored. She is batting .264 in 42 games for Arkansas this season. Whitney Cloer is also batting .264 and has driven in 16 runs for the Razorbacks. Jessica Bachkora and Rachel LeMaster are tied for the team-lead with 13 stolen bases. Katy Henry leads the pitching staff with a 7-14 record and has 153 strikeouts in 149.2 innings pitched.
The Wildcats continue their best start in school history with a 17-11 overall record and a 4-7 mark in SEC play. The four conference wins match the season totals from last season and 2005. UK has a team batting average of .324 and has hit 35 home runs in 28 games ? two shy of tying the school record of 37 which was set in 2004.
Senior Brooke Marnitz leads the team and the SEC with 42 RBI and is third in the league with a .440 batting average. She has an SEC-leading 13 home runs and has scored 28 times for UK this season. Senior Katie Campbell is batting .407 and has driven in 25 runs with a team-high nine doubles. She has homered eight times and is perfect behind the plate with a 1.000 fielding percentage.
Freshmen Natalie Smith and Molly Johnson continue to shine for the Cats. Smith, the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week, is third on the team with a .392 batting average and is second with 24 runs scored. Johnson is hitting .368 with 26 RBI, nine doubles and four home runs this season.
?Arkansas is in the same boat we are, trying to build in an extremely tough conference,? said head coach Eileen Schmidt. ?They were a tournament qualifier last season and are very young roster-wise this year. This is a long road trip so we will need to remain playing hard and consistently.?
