Every Tuesday, UK Athletics recognizes outstanding performances for our student-athletes.
These are the honorees for the week ending Sunday, Apr. 4:
Softball: Kara Dill
Freshman Kara Dill started all three games in a conference series for the
first time in her career – and she was outstanding at third base and in the
lineup for the Wildcats. Dill led the UK offense as the only player to register
a hit in all three games and batted .375 for the weekend. Dill hit her first
career double in the third game of the series – and brought home a run in the
first game of the series in which UK only won by a single tally. She was terrific
in the field registering three assists and a putout on the weekend.
Softball: Molly Johnson
Senior Molly Johnson continued her offensive explosion this week in Starkville.
Johnson has a hit in 24 of UK’s last 28 games – and this weekend she was also
walked three times. She continued to improve on the UK record books with her
52 nd career double in a win over Mississippi State. Johnson was also terrific
in the field with a 1.000 fielding percentage with nine assists and six putouts.
She single-handedly kept All-American Chelsea Bramlett off of the base paths
with two incredible plays in game two of the series in helping UK pull off
the series win. Johnson also swiped two bases this weekend to run her tally
to a team-high 14 on the year.
Softball: Rachel Riley
Sophomore Rachel Riley was incredible in the circle in helping UK earn a series
win over Mississippi State for the second consecutive season. It marks the
first time in school history UK has won the series over the Bulldogs in consecutive
seasons. Riley stifled the Bulldog offense and allowed just two hits with no
runs and no runner advancing beyond second base in her fifth shutout of the
season – the third most in a single season in school history. She also did
not allow a base runner to reach on a walk. Even more impressively, Riley did
not allow a ball out of the infield as all 21 outs came on either groundouts,
pop-ups in the infield or strikeouts. Not known as a strikeout pitcher, Riley
earned her eighth win of the season by recording a game-ending strikeout to
preserve the flawless effort.
