March 26, 2002

Game One Box Score

Game Two Box Score

The University of Kentucky softball team blasted three home runs in the second game of a doubleheader with Akron as the Wildcats split the twin bill, losing the opener, 4-2, and winning the second, 16-3, on Tuesday, March 26 at the UK Softball Complex. With the split, UK snapped a season-high five-game losing streak and upped its record to 16-15 while the Zips are now 12-6.

“Offensively we didn’t make the adjustments we needed to in game one,” UK Coach Beth Kirchner said. “In game two, we did, and that made the difference. Defensively we came out ready to play and it showed.”

Junior Lyndsey Angus led the Cats offense, going 4-for-6 with three doubles, a home run, a walk and six RBI. Also having big days at the plate were senior Beth Fogle (5-for-6, a double, a triple, two walks and four runs scored), junior Nikki Jones (5-for-7 with a double, four runs scored and two RBI) and senior Sandi Dengler (3-for-6, three runs scored). Senior Andy Eilertson smacked her team-leading sixth home run of the season, going 3-for-6 with four RBI. Senior Jennifer Howland (6-4) picked up the win in game two as she allowed three runs on five hits in 5.0 innings of work.

Both games started out very much in Kentucky’s favor as the Zips went down one-two-three to start both games and then the Cats tallied two runs on three hits in their respective halves of the first inning in each game. However, both games took very different paths from there.

Game two saw the Cats score two more runs in the second, six in the third and six in the fourth en route to the 16-3 drubbing.

Fogle led off game two with a bunt single and then moved up to third on Jones’ single. A walk was then issued to Angus to load the bases, bringing Eilertson to the plate, who promptly singled to right field, scoring Fogle and Jones.

Akron responded with two runs of their own in the top of the third and it looked like the Cats were in for a dogfight. But then the Cats’ bats woke up. UK rang up two runs in the second due in part to two Akron errors before exploding in the next two innings. UK sent 10 batters to the plate in the third, highlighted by Angus’s first home run of the year, a two-run shot to left-center.

Again Akron responded by lighting up the visitor’s run column, but UK answered the call one more time by sending 12 batters to the plate and getting round-trippers out of both freshman Jessica Nance, a solo shot, and Eilertson, a two-run dinger to right-center.

The three home runs in the game tied a UK record which the Cats had set earlier this season at Morehead State.

Game one was a different story as the Cats’ bats went silent after the big first inning, mustering just four hits over the final six frames. UA’s Lisa Keenan (6-4) picked up the win for the Zips, tossing 7.0 innings and striking out 10, at one point sitting down four Cats in a row.

Again Fogle started things off for UK with a hit, this time doubling to left field. She moved up a base on Jones’ bunt single and the pair came home on Angus’s double to left-center. This time the Zips kept UK silent for the rest of the game but put some hits of their own together for the win.

UA picked up a run in the top of the third to come within a run and then tied it in the top of the fifth as Melissa Hurley singled home both runs. With the score knotted at 2-2 in the top of the sixth, Tracee McCoy singled and stole second before Kerstin Sewell belted one over the fence in left-center for the final margin.

Freshman Meghan Cooper (7-6) suffered the loss for the Cats, allowing all four runs on nine hits in 7.0 innings of work.

The Cats will return to action on Saturday, March 26 as they play host to Alabama in a three-game Southeastern Conference series. The first pitch of Saturday’s doubleheader is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.

Game OneAkron           0010120-4 9 0Kentucky        2000000-2 7 3WP: Keenan (6-4). LP: Cooper (7-6). S: none.

Game TwoAkron 02010- 3 5 2Kentucky 2266X-16 17 1WP: Howland (6-4). LP: Barbato (5-2). S: none.

-UK-