The Kentucky softball team will open Southeastern Conference play this weekend, Mar. 10-11, when it hosts Auburn for a three-game series at the UK Softball Complex. The series kicks off with a Saturday doubleheader set to begin at 1 p.m. The weekend wraps up with a single game on Sunday, also slated for a 1 p.m. start.
The Wildcats are 3-7 all-time in SEC openers after falling to these same Tigers last season in Auburn. Kentucky has fared better in home league openers, going 4-6 all-time in their first SEC home contest of the season. UK?s last win in an SEC home opener was a 5-3 victory over Ole Miss on Mar. 12, 2005.
This weekend marks the 28th all-time meeting between UK and AU on the softball diamond. Auburn leads 19-8 in the series after sweeping the series a year ago. The Tigers have won five straight games in the series with the last Wildcat win coming on April 30, 2005, when the Cats topped the Tigers 5-2 in Lexington.
Auburn is currently 11-12 on the year after falling to Troy earlier this week. They have dropped three of their last four games including the 3-1 loss at Troy on Wednesday night. Tatiana Fernandez leads the Tiger offense with a .290 average. Holly Currie is batting .286 with four home runs and 12 RBI, while also going 5-5 on the mound with a team-best 1.60 ERA. Sara Ghezzi is batting .288 and leads the team with 13 RBI. Anna Thompson has been strong in the circle, going 6-6 with a 1.84 ERA and 134 strikeouts in 80.0 innings of work.
The Wildcats added to their best start in school history with a 6-3 win over Louisville earlier this week to improve to 12-4 on the young season. Kentucky is outscoring opponents 131-70 and has hit 22 homeruns already this season. The school record for home runs in a season is 37, set during the 2004 season.
Senior Katie Campbell leads the team with a .500 average and eight doubles. She has driven in 17 runs, scored 13 times and hit five home runs this season. Senior Brooke Marnitz continues her hot hitting, leading the SEC in slugging percentage (1.039), RBI (32) and home runs (8). Marnitz is batting .451 and has scored a team-high 19 runs this season. The Wildcat newcomers have also been impressive this season. Reigning SEC Freshman of the Week Molly Johnson is batting .471 with 18 RBI, six doubles and four homers, while rookie Natalie Smith is hitting .407 with 13 RBI, a team-best three triples and has scored 18 times for UK.
?Auburn is tough year in and year out. They have really built a well-respected program that is in the SEC tournament and NCAA tournament every year,? said head coach Eileen Schmidt. ?Auburn has always swung the bat well but they have added some quality pitching over the last few years so it will be a tough task. We need to come out early and play a clean game. We need to get a good performance in the circle that allows our offense to do their work.?
