No. 11 Kentucky Opens Up Road Trip on Wednesday at WKU
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After picking up its fifth
Southeastern Conference series win in six tries over the
weekend beating the No. 18 Missouri Tigers two
games to one, the Kentucky softball team will step out of conference play and
make the trip to Bowling Green, Ky., to face the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
for a Wednesday night game set to kick off at 7 p.m. ET from the WKU Softball
Complex.
Wednesday’s game will be available to watch on
WKUsports.com with the payment of a CBS College Sports Live subscription
payment. Updates will also be available on UKathletics.com and by following
Kentucky Softball on Twitter at @UKSoftball.
UK is sitting at No. 11 in Monday’s release of
the NCAA RPI and currently hoists a 37-9 overall record, including a perfect
3-0 mark against in-state opponents in 2016. The Wildcats beat the Hilltoppers
1-0 in nine innings a season ago at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington.
Kentucky is led in hitting by speedy slapper
Sylver Samuel, who will enter week 11 of play in at .371 on the year in batting
average. Samuel has scored 20 runs on 46 hits this season with a double and six
RBI. The hottest bat being swung by the Wildcats right now is freshman Abbey
Cheek, who has four home runs in her last four games, including three off the
John Cropp Stadium videoboard in left field. Three of the four homers she hit
last week were game-winning long balls, including the series-clinching homer in
the bottom of the sixth inning on Sunday against No. 18 Missouri’s ace, Paige Lowary.
Senior pitcher Kelsey Nunley continues to be
sensational in the circle, entering the weekend with a 17-4 overall record on
the season, and a 1.14 ERA to lead the deep and dynamic Kentucky pitching
staff. Nunley is the NCAA leader for all active pitchers in career innings
thrown, with over 870 in her four years in the Blue and White.
Western Kentucky enters Wednesday night’s
in-state midweek game with a 16-21 overall record and 7-8 in Conference USA
action. Under the direction of WKU alum, Amy Tudor – the Hilltoppers are coming
off of a series loss to the Charlotte 49ers, two games to one with Charlotte
picking up wins in the first two games before a 4-0 win to close out the
three-game set by WKU.
WKU in the circle is led by Kathryn Downing,
who has a 2.99 ERA on the season in her 17 appearances and sports a 6-3 overall
record on the year in 75.0 innings pitched. The most commonly-used pitcher by
the Toppers is Hannah Parker, who has appeared in 28 games, earning the starting
assignment in 23 of them. Parker is 10-12 on the season with a 3.67 ERA with
141.1 innings pitched on the season.
At the plate, the Hilltoppers rely on Brooke
Holloway, who has a .367 batting average on the season, with over 24 runs
scored on 40 hits and 22 RBI. There are three WKU batters who are hitting above
.300 on the season with the team is hitting .270 as a unit.
Game Schedule
Wednesday, April 20
No. 11 Kentucky at Western Kentucky
(7 p.m. ET)
For the latest on the Kentucky softball team, follow @UKSoftball on Twitter, Instagram
and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
