Learning Quickly, Cats Clinch LSU Series Win
Southeastern Conference play got off to a rough start for the Kentucky softball team.
The Wildcats suffered a sweep at the hands of second-ranked Florida, getting no-hit in game one and scoring only two combined runs in three losses on the road.
Naturally, Rachel Lawson was curious to see how her team would respond against LSU.
The Cats seem to be handling themselves just fine.
After exploding for 23 runs in a pair of midweek wins, UK is welcoming another top-10 opponent to John Cropp Stadium this weekend in No. 8 LSU. The welcome, through two games, hasn’t been all that kind. With a 2-0 win on Saturday, the 24th-ranked Cats (19-6, 2-3 SEC) have already claimed the series victory over the visiting Tigers (23-4, 3-2 SEC).
“Any time you play LSU and they have such outstanding pitching, you don’t know how that’s going to go for you,” Lawson said. “The fact that we were able to stay the course and stay in the games then ultimately win them, I was really pleased about it.”
A day after she went 2-for-3 in a 4-1 game-one victory, Brooklin Hinz knocked in the game’s first run with a clutch two-out single in the bottom of the fourth inning. Two innings later, she repeated the feat to add an insurance run. That was all the support Autumn Humes would need.
“It’s always, always a big deal when you have your offense working for when you’re on the mound because you have so much cushion under you,” Humes said. “It takes a lot of pressure off. Thank you, Brooklin Hinz, for being awesome today.”
Humes went the distance on Saturday, shutting out the Tigers and allowing just five hits and two walks while striking out seven. She moved to 5-1 on the season in picking up the victory.
“I had a variety of pitches going,” Humes said. “I think the best thing for me that worked was my changeup. Kind of kept them off balance. That really helped my other pitches dominate them.”
The sophomore became the second first-year Wildcat pitcher to toss a complete game in as many days, following Grace Baalman’s Saturday effort with seven scoreless innings.
“I felt like this weekend so far they’ve really started to come into their own,” Lawson said. “I’m really pleased with the direction they’re heading. They really, on their off days, seem to come out and focus on the things that we talk about after the games. It’s really all about how they attack the day. They’re really self-motivated.”
The latest motivation came in the form of that sweep at Florida. Humes held her own against the Gators, allowing four earned runs over 10.2 innings, but she knew she and her team could do better. And so they have.
“Last weekend when we played Florida, that was such a learning experience for me as well as everybody else,” said Autumn Humes, the winning pitcher. “I know that was my first SEC series, so it was just a big deal to come from last weekend to this weekend and see how much we learned from last weekend and how we improved from it.”
