Feb. 21, 2009
LAFAYETTE, La. – Kentucky’s torrid comeback in the top of the seventh inning fell two-feet short, as the Wildcats suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Connecticut on Saturday at the Fifth Annual Maris Gras Classic.
After watching the Huskies jump out to a quick 4-0 start through two innings of play, UK clawed their way back into the game behind seven hits over the final four innings of play.
Trailing by two runs in the top of the seventh, junior Destinee Mordecai led off with a double into centerfield. She was able to move over to third on a passed ball by the Huskies’ catcher. Sophomore Annie Rowland’s groundout to short allowed Mordecai to cross the plate bringing UK to within 5-4.
With two outs on the scoreboard, junior Molly Johnson blasted her third hit of the day a single into center. Sophomore Meagan Aull followed suit with a well-hit ball that the shortstop dove to handle, but was unable to make a throw to first. Sophomore Megan Yocke stood in the batter’s box and took four balls to load the bases. With the bases loaded, sophomore Samantha DeMartine’s towering shot to deep center field. The ball was hit well enough, but there was a heavy breeze at Lamson Park and UConn’s centerfielder made a grab two-feet shy of the wall to end the game.
Kentucky (4-3) had its second game of the afternoon cancelled due to inclement weather that moved across the area. UK was leading No. 20 Louisiana-Lafayette 2-0 in the bottom half of the third when the game was deemed a rain out.
The Huskies plated two runs in the second and third inning behind five hits to take the early edge. Kentucky would begin to climb into things with two runs in the fourth. Johnson got things going with a single up the middle. She advanced to second and Aull reached first on a catching error by the first baseman. A sacrifice bunt by Yocke moved the runners into scoring position. Freshman Brittany Cervantes plated the two scores with a chopper to second base and an infield single making the score 4-2.
Kentucky added another run in the top half of the sixth. Johnson once again got things going with a single into center. Aull found a gap through the right side and another sacrifice bunt by Yocke put runners on second and third. Some swift base running by UK’s shortstop allowed the team to score the run as she crossed the plate on a groundout to the shortstop by DeMartine.
Kentucky returns to action for a 9 a.m. CT match-up with Connecticut to wrap up play at the 5th Annual Mardi Gras Classic.
Complete coverage of the UK softball team can be found at UKathletics.com.
