March 20, 2011
BATON ROUGE, La. – Senior Meagan Aull extended her career-long hitting streak to nine games, but LSU’s pitcher Brittany Mack quieted the 21st-ranked Kentucky bats in a 4-1 series-clinching victory Sunday in Baton Rouge, La. After capturing the opening game of the series, Kentucky dropped the final two games of the series with No. 25 LSU to drop its first SEC series of the season.
Kentucky falls to 19-6 overall on the season and 5-3 in Southeastern Conference action. LSU improves to 17-12 overall and 2-6 in league play.
Aull led the offense again as she extended her career-long hitting streak with a single in the top of the sixth frame. Aull has registered a hit in every SEC game this season. Junior Brittany Cervantes scored the Wildcats’ lone run. Kentucky’s defensive effort committed a pair of uncharacteristic errors to aid the Tiger cause.
LSU plated a score in the home side of the first to take the early 1-0 advantage. Following an inning-opening strikeout, LSU put a runner aboard when she was plucked with a pitch. The runner moved into scoring position on a groundout. A called illegal pitch advanced the runner to third and the run came home on an infield error for the 1-0 score.
The Wildcats evened the score at one with a tally in the top half of the second. Cervantes reached by way of a walk to begin the frame. Freshman Lauren Cumbess laid down a terrific sacrifice bunt to shift the runner into scoring position. The heady base running of Cervantes enabled her to move to third when junior Rachel Riley reached on fielder’s choice. Pinch runner Emily Jolly’s steal attempt paid off as LSU’s catcher tossed the ball into left field when Cervantes came off the bag during Jolly’s attempt. The error allowed Cervantes to round home to knot the score at one run apiece.
LSU tacked on two runs in the bottom of the third to reclaim the lead at 3-1. Ashley Langoni hit a solo home run to begin the two-out rally. The Tigers then posted back-to-back hits with a single and a double into left-center to plate the second run of the stanza.
The home team added to its lead with another run in the bottom half of the fourth. The Tigers loaded the bases behind another error from UK, a walk and a fielder’s choice. Junior pitcher Chanda Bell entered the game against the top of the order and recorded two quick outs. An RBI-walk plated the score, and Bell escaped further damage with a groundout to Kara Dill at short to end the inning with a 4-1 score.
Aull broke open Mack’s no-hitter in the top of the sixth with a two-out chopper up the middle. UK would leave the runner stranded with an inning-ending strikeout.
Kentucky returns to action with a midweek road trip to Louisville on Wed., March 23 at 6 p.m. ET.
Complete coverage of the UK softball team can be found at UKathletics.com all season long.
