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The Wildcat softball team swept a pair of games in the first day of play at its own Kentucky Invitational. UK pounded Belmont (3-4), 14-1 in five innings in their home opener. The Wildcats then topped Youngstown State (3-3) in dramatic fashion as sophomore Emily Marks belted a walk-off homer in the bottom of the seventh to give UK a 1-0 win. The Cats are now 9-14 on the year and have won a season-high six straight games.
Meghan Cooper (2-6) tied a career-high with five strikeouts and allowed just one hit in a complete-game shutout against the Penguins. The Cats managed just four hits in the game, including two by Marks? with her first homer of the season, a double by Amber Janneck and a single by Megan Glenn.
In the opener, the Cats got on the board with three runs in the second on three singles, including RBI knocks by Lori Melchi and Alli Eckman. Kentucky added a run in the third but saw the Bruins break into the scoring column in the bottom of the inning.
The Wildcats broke it open in the fourth when they exploded for eight runs on eight hits. Five straight runners reached base with one out and Janneck emptied the bases with a double off the wall in center field. She moved to third on the throw to the plate and then stole home with a heads up play to round the bases and give the Cats a 12-1 advantage.
Kentucky tallied two more insurance runs in the top of the fifth as Gina Florence and Melchi delivered run-scoring singles to give the Cats a 14-1 lead.
Starter Samantha Allen retired the side in order in the bottom of the fifth as the Cats held on for the five-inning win thanks to the eight-run rule. Allen improved to 7-6 on the year after allowing just one earned run on two hits in 5.0 innings of play. She reached a new career-high with seven strikeouts in just five innings.
?We had a lot of different people step up today and we keep finding ways to win,? said head coach Eileen Schmidt. ?I was proud of the way we played today and Emily Marks came up big for us with the home run in the second game today.?
The tournament continues Sunday, Mar. 6, at 10 AM when YSU and BU face off again. The Cats then take on YSU at 12:30 PM, followed by the sixth and final game of the tournament at 3 PM between UK and Belmont.
