Kentucky’s Abbey Cheek Named SEC Freshman of the Week

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Freshman slugger Abbey
Cheek was named the Southeastern Conference’s Freshman of the Week on Monday
afternoon, the conference office announced. The weekly award is the first in
the young career for Cheek, who returned to her home state of South Carolina
and tore up the Winthrop Invitational.

Cheek went 7-of-13 on the weekend with a
team-high eight RBIs and five runs scored to help lead UK to the 2016 Winthrop
Invitational Championship. Cheek had five two-out hits, with four RBIs on those
hits, and drove in the eventual game-winning runs against Lehigh and Winthrop.
The freshman is hitting .362 on the year while clubbing four homers and two
triples through the first four weeks of the season.

After a 21-game road trip to start the season,
the No. 16 Kentucky softball team opens up its fourth season at John Cropp
Stadium on Wednesday night as the Wildcats face the Indiana Hoosiers at 6 p.m.
ET live on the SEC Network+ and the WatchESPN app.

The Wildcats are coming off a 4-1 weekend at
the Winthrop Invitational, as they have rocketed out to an 18-3 start to the
season, the best through 21 games in program history. Kentucky won the
tournament this past weekend in Rock Hill, S.C., to add to its already heavy
2016 load of the Campbell/Cartier Classic (San Diego, Calif.) and Chattanooga
Frost Classic championships the two weekends prior.

Kentucky has played more true road games than
any team in the SEC this season (5) and is undefeated in those games, including
a 5-3 win over No. 22 Arizona State. UK has also played five top-25 teams, going
4-1 in those games, tying Alabama and Texas A&M for most games played (5) and
top-25 wins (4) than any other team in the SEC.

For the latest on the Kentucky softball team, follow @UKSoftball on Twitter, Instagram
and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.