April 18, 2003

Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

After struggling in the first game of a doubleheader against Auburn, the University of Kentucky softball team played a grueling ten-inning second game but came up just short, falling 5-4. The Cats (10-37, 1-24) will try to end their 21-game SEC losing streak in the series finale Saturday at the UK Softball Complex.

In the first game, the Tigers (24-25, 12-13) got off to a quick start. After two of the first three batters got on base, Kasey Angulo homered over the left field fence to give Auburn the early 3-0 lead. Following the second double of the inning, Deni Ziegler singled down the left field line to score the runner and add another run to the board.

The four-run first seemed to deflate the Cats, as they managed just three hits in the first six innings. Auburn added runs in the second, third and fifth innings and scored twice in the top of the ninth to close the door on UK. Kentucky scored their only run in the bottom of seventh when Rachel Friberg came home from third on a wild pitch, but that was all the Cats could get as Auburn walked away with the 9-1 win.

Junior Rachel Friberg was 4-8 on the day with a run and an RBI

In the second game, the teams would battle through three and a half innings before the first run would cross the plate. In the bottom of the fourth, Lyndsey Angus led off with a double to right center. Friberg, who went 3-5 in the game, knocked her home with a single up the middle and Kentucky took the 1-0 lead.

But the Tigers answered in the top of the next inning when Ashley Griffen hit a three-run home run.

Down 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Angus once again began the inning with a lead-off hit, this time a single to left field. After a Friberg strike out, UK pitcher Amy Kendall came up and smashed her second home run of the season to straightaway centerfield, knotting the score at 3.

The teams would go scoreless the next three innings and the game would go into the 10th inning, the longest game of the season for the Cats.

In the top of the inning, the Tigers would take the lead for good after two runs crossed the plate on three hits. Kentucky would score once on a Nikki Jones RBI infield single but two pop-ups would end the game with Auburn emerging as 5-4 victors.

Saturday’s game against the Tigers will feature senior day festivities as Kentucky honors the careers and contributions of Nikki Jones, Lyndsey Angus and undergraduate assistant coach Bethany Wiegand. The game will begin at 1 p.m. ET with the senior day celebration taking place approximately 10 minutes prior to the first pitch.