March 18, 2000
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Kentucky softball team earnedback-to-back wins Saturday afternoon on the opening day of the Aces Classic’including a 16-0 victory over Indiana, a game in which the Cats broke fouroffensive team records. UK’s two victories Saturday improved its overall recordthis season to 13-13, the first time in school history the Cats have reachedthe .500 mark after 20 games played in a season.
UK, winners of six of its last seven games, used the biggest offensiveexplosion in the four-year history of the program to defeat the Hoosiers 16-0in the Cats’ second game of the day. The Cats broke single-game school marksfor runs scored in a game (16), hits (18), RBIs (15), and total bases (22).
Three Wildcats recorded three hit performances led by junior TiffanyKruse who had two doubles, a triple, and three RBIs. Leslie Kwiatkowski went3-for-3 and scored three runs with an RBI.
Leading 3-0 going into the bottom of the third inning, UK eruptedfor 13runs on 12 hits as the Cats went on to defeat the Hoosiers in five innings dueto the eight-run mercy rule.
Hurler Keary Camunas, who won both games on the day to improve to7-7 onthe season, pitched three shutouts innings, before sophomore reliever JenHowland closed out the game for UK with two scoreless innings.
In UK’s first game, the Cats defeated host Evansville 4-0 led byCamunas’ two-hit shuout, her third shutout of the season and 15th of hercareer.Freshman Nikki Jones led UK at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two stolen bases.
In the bottom of the first, Beth Fogle scored from third on a fielder’schoice by Kwiatkowski to give UK a 1-0 lead. The Cats added three insuranceruns in the bottom of the sixth. Tiffany Kruse tripled to left center, scoringKwiatkowski and Angus. Sophomore Sandi Dengler followed with an RBI-single toleft field as Kruse scored to give UK a 4-0 win. The victory avenged UK’s 2-0loss to the Aces last weekend at the Kentucky Invitational.
“Our bats were on fire today, and we got great pitching from KearyCamunas,” UK coach Beth Kirchner said. “We are playing really well right, and Ithink we will continue to build on our momentum.”
UK returns to action on Sunday when the Cats take on Loyola-Chicago at11 a.m. (CST) followed by Butler at 5 p.m.
R H EUE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1UK 1 0 0 0 0 3 x 4 6 3
WP Camunas (6-7) and Dengler, LP Conn (6-5) and Hahn. 2B Kwiatkowski (UK),3B Kruse (UK)Records UE (17-8-2), UK (12-13).
R H EIU 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 2UK 3 0 (13) 0 x 16 18 0
WP Camunas (7-7), Howland and Dengler, Snider, LP Smith (0-1), Cooke andMonroe. 2B Monroe (IU), Kruse 2 (UK), 3B Kruse (UK)Records IU (6-15), UK (13-13).
