When you’ve been on the road for four straight weeks and the season’s first 19 games, home sweet home has never seemed so welcoming.On Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the UK Softball Complex, the Kentucky softball team (14-5) will make its much-anticipated 2010 home debut versus archrival Louisville. It’s been a long-time coming for a team that took an untraditional approach to starting this season.”You have to be really tough to play on the road,” head coach Rachel Lawson said. “We’ve played a great schedule, played outstanding teams and played them in their atmosphere. We’ve been able to hold our own and win a bunch of games. Anytime you can do that, you can grow in maturity and be tough. There’s not going to be anything in the upcoming weeks thrown at us that we haven’t already seen in the preseason.”But for the fans in the stands Wednesday, what they might see thrown in front of them is something this town has not seen from the softball diamond in, well, ever. Last year the Cats marched to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history, and now, get this: They expect to go back. Yes, a team that was mired in mediocrity (that’s putting it nicely) since its inception in the late 1990s has dreams of a deep postseason run. Since they’ve been on the road, you’re probably wondering why.Let’s give you a few reasons:- They’re led by a softball junky. Lawson eats, breathes and sleeps softball in addition to being an ace recruiter. Some wonder if she’s secretly installed a bed in the home dugout. She loves it that much. And she’s that good. She fostered success at Western Kentucky and now she’s quickly turned it over to Kentucky. So long as Lawson is at the helm, UK is going to be good for a long, long time.- UK has the best player you’ve never heard of in Molly Johnson. The All-American shortstop is not only one of the best players in the Southeastern Conference but the entire nation. She’s a stud with the glove and a menace with the bat. The U.S. National Team member is currently hitting .373 at the dish with six home runs and 11 RBI.- With the exception of a seldom-used player, the Cats return every single player from the NCAA Tournament team. They’re stronger, more experienced and vastly improving at theplate. But if there’s one reason more than any other of why this team has the potential to be special, look no further than the circle 43 feet from home plate. UK has not one, not two but three pitchers in Chanda Bell, Rachel Riley and Amber Matousek who are all capable of twirling a gem on any given night. It’s a three-headed monster in a sport where you can compete with one ace and dominate with two. Three? That’s like striking oil.”It’s really helpful for us because all three of them have different strengths,” Lawson said. “Depending on the team we are facing and their strengths, we can attack their offense with a pitcher that matches well with one of their weaknesses. It really helps to have diversity in the circle, whereas most teams don’t have that kind of diversity.”Between the three of them, UK has a 1.51 ERA. Let me repeat: one-and-a-half runs per game! That means that on most given nights, if you stop by the UK Softball Complex, chances are you won’t see two runs cross the plate when UK is in the field. That’s phenomenal, folks.And that ERA is after a so-so pitching weekend. Thanks to Riley (4-1, 0.62 ERA), Bell (8-2, 1.87 ERA) and Matousek (2-2, 1.68 ERA), UK ranks third in the SEC in pitching and almost certainly near the top nationally (national statistics have not been released at this point in the season).  As freshmen last year, Riley and Bell tore it up. Bell, who is already second on UK’s all-time strikeouts list – with two and a half seasons to go – pitched the program’s first no-hitter against Western Kentucky. Riley came on late and became a key element in UK’s postseason run.But Matousek, now a senior, has been just as good this season. After watching Riley and Bell shine in the spotlight last season, she has honed her pitching arsenal and inserted herself back into the daily rotation. She has made Kentucky’s pitching staff one of the deepest in the nation.”Chanda and Rachel are very good pitchers and I was extremely happy for them (last year),” Matousek said. “It was great for our program to have the three pitchers. There are a lot of schools that get by with one pitcher but in our case I think that we are going to be extra special because we have the three of us. I worked harder this fall and I know that the other two worked hard as well to pick up other pitches and get great at what they did.”As the veteran pitcher on the team, nobody would have blamed Matousek had she gotten frustrated last season when two first-year players came in and shined in the circle. To her credit, she never did. In fact, Matousek has been Riley and Bell’s biggest supporters, serving as a mentor in the bullpen sessions.”If it wasn’t for Amber, they wouldn’t be as good as they are,” Lawson said. “She gives them a lot of advice. She has really helped Rachel with a couple of her pitches and she’s been a real steady factor for Chanda.”Lawson likened Matousek to a secondary pitching coach and believes she has the potential to be a terrific head coach one day if she chooses that path.”She could have created a situation that was very adversarial, but she didn’t,” Lawson said. “She wanted to take them under her wing. She helped them with some of their pitches and she has a great mind for the game. She has been able to give me a few pointers about what she thinks they are feeling at that moment. We’ve really been able to improve the other pitchers. I think it’s not only that she wants to be a part of the success of the team, but I think she has directly been a huge part of their successes.”With three stellar arms now gliding in UK’s rotation, don’t expect the success to stop anytime soon.