Feb. 12, 2010
TEMPE, Ariz. – After securing an upset of a top-five ranked team nearly 12 hours earlier, the Kentucky Wildcats returned to field with little rest and dropped a 4-0 decision to San Diego State on Friday morning. Junior Samantha DeMartine led the bats with a 2-for-2 day and a pair of singles.
Kentucky (1-1) could not string together enough hits and stranded seven base runners without pushing a run across. San Diego State (2-0), who is receiving votes in both preseason polls, benefited from a pair of Wildcat errors on the day and scored two runs in the fourth and sixth innings for the victory.
Senior pitcher Amber Matousek takes the loss in her first outing after yielding two earned runs in a complete game performance.
Matousek allowed a pair of base runners in the top of the first, but got out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts and an inning-ending fly-out to left field. Senior Molly Johnson led off the inning with a bunt to get on base and senior Natalie Smith advanced the runner on a sacrifice bunt. However, UK’s offense stalled with a pop-up and a ground out.
San Diego State charted a leadoff single in the second, but the Wildcats quickly dispersed of the threat. After Matousek got the second batter to pop up to Brittany Cervantes at third, DeMartine came up with an unassisted double play to end the inning. After snagging a line out she swiftly tapped first to get the runner out and end the inning.
DeMartine then came up with a bit of offense in the bottom of the inning when she tallied a two out single through the right side, but UK could not string together any more hits to advance the runner.
Matousek and the UK defense charted an easy three-up and three-down inning in the top of the third. Junior Annie Rowlands opened the bottom half of the inning with a leadoff single into center field. After a stolen base, Smith advanced the runner with a groundout to the second baseman to put the runner on third with two outs. Kentucky stranded the runner in scoring position when the inning ended on a pop up to the shortstop.
San Diego State struck for two runs in the top of the fourth to take the early advantage. The Aztecs charted two hits in the inning and benefited from a UK miscue to bring in the runs. Kentucky could not answer in the bottom of the stanza suffering three consecutive outs.
The Aztecs added to their lead with two more runs in the top of the sixth. San Diego State opened the inning with a single and then benefited from a UK error in the inning. A double plated a score and then a little blooper that fell in shallow right scored another for the 4-0 lead.
Kentucky returns to action at 4 p.m. ET this afternoon for the second game of the day. Up next for the Wildcats is Cal State Fullerton.
