The Kentucky softball team will travel to Athens this weekend, Mar. 17-18, for its first Southeastern Conference road series of the season. The Wildcats will take on No. 18 Georgia in a three-game series beginning with a Saturday doubleheader. The conference foes will wrap up the series with a single game on Sunday. Game time is set for 2 p.m. each day at Bulldog Softball Stadium.
This weekend marks the 38th all-time meeting between the Cats and Bulldogs. Georgia swept the season series a year ago in Athens and leads 30-7 in the all-time series. The Bulldogs have won the last 16 meetings between the two teams with the last Kentucky win coming on Mar. 7, 2001, in Lexington.
Georgia is currently 24-8 on the year with a 2-0 mark in SEC play after sweeping a doubleheader over Auburn on Wednesday. The Bulldogs took a 4-0 decision in game one and won the second matchup by a score of 5-2.
The Bulldogs are led offensively by Charvi Greer who is batting a team-high .453 in 26 games this season. Kellie Middleton is second with a .404 average and is tops on the team with 22 RBI this season.
Kasi Carroll is 17-3 on the year to lead all UGA pitchers. Her 1.70 ERA leads the team as do her 120 strikeouts. Carroll has 10 complete games and five shutouts this season and has tossed 115 innings for the Bulldogs.
The Wildcats dropped a doubleheader to visiting Mississippi State earlier this week to fall to 13-8 on the year. Kentucky defeated Auburn in the series finale last weekend for their lone SEC win of the season but fell to 1-4 in the league after the Tuesday doubleheader.
Senior Brooke Marnitz leads the team with a .429 average, 10 home runs and 34 RBI. She is also the top run scorer for Kentucky with 21 runs this season. Senior catcher Katie Campbell is second on the team with six homers and a .410 average. She has driven in 19 runs and scored 15 times for the Cats. Junior Becky Bishop is hitting .349 on the year and has homered in three of the last four games to give her five longballs, while freshman Molly Johnson is second on the team with 21 RBI.
?We will need to focus on getting a quick start,? said head coach Eileen Schmidt. ?Georgia is an explosive team offensively with a great combination of speed and power and their pitching is solid.?
