Feb. 19, 2009
LAFAYETTE, La. –
Fresh off an upstart weekend to the 2009 season, Kentucky returns to the road for its second tournament in as many weeks when they travel to Louisiana-Lafayette for the Mardi Gras Invitational. The Blue and White will face San Diego State, UConn and the host Ragin Cajuns in a three-day affair.
Kentucky had an impressive start to its season last week at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic hosted by UNLV in Las Vegas. UK opened its 12th season of softball with an 11-9 win over Oregon for their fourth consecutive opening day victory. The Wildcats followed that with an 8-0 five-inning shutout over Hawaii.
Kentucky capped off the weekend with a dominating 7-1 win over UNLV on Sunday. Freshman hurler Chanda Bell turned in the most dominating pitching performance in school allure as she tallied 15 strikeouts on the day breaking a 10-year old single game record.
UK’s lone two losses on the weekend came against top-15 ranked foes in DePaul and UCLA. Against the Bruins the Wildcats found themselves in a deep hole to start the game but clawed their way back into things in an offensive showdown finally ending in a 9-6 win for UCLA. Sophomore Megan Yocke highlighted the day with an inside the park home run for the UK offense.
Yocke and classmates Samantha DeMartine and Meagan Aull led the way offensively for the Blue and White. Yocke totaled three extra base hits and paced the squad with seven RBI and six runs scored. DeMartine hit with a .400 clip to open her first season as the starting first baseman, while Aull batted .345 and capped that with a highlight-reel two-run triple against UNLV.
The Blue and White and San Diego State have previously met twice on the softball field. The two teams played in back-to-back seasons in 2005 and 2006 with San Diego State winning both meetings.
UK and UConn have met just once in the two team’s prior history. A year ago at the UT-Chattanooga Shootout the squads were scheduled to play, however the game never began due to rain. Kentucky leads the series 1-0 which began in 2000.
The Wildcats and Louisiana Lafayette have met just twice in program history prior to this weekend. The two squads will play each other twice in the Mardi Gras Tournament. The Ragin Cajuns own a 2-0 series history against UK which began in 1999.
Complete coverage of the UK softball team can be found at UKathletics.com.
