No. 13 Kentucky Hosts Ole Miss to Open SEC Home Slate
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky’s best start to a
season in program history continues on Friday night at John Cropp Stadium as
the No. 13 Kentucky softball team opens up Southeastern Conference home action with
a three-game series against Ole Miss. The Rebels enter the weekend receiving
votes in the ESPN.com poll, and with a 23-5 record fresh off a midweek sweep of
Louisiana Monroe.
The series opens on Friday night at 6 p.m. ET,
with Saturday (3 p.m. ET) and Sunday (1 p.m. ET) both slated for afternoon
affairs at John Cropp Stadium. All three games will be shown live on the SEC Network+
with Mark Buerger and Carol Bruggeman.
UK defeated the Marshall Thundering Herd, 1-0
on Wednesday afternoon on the road as Kentucky moved to 9-0 on the road this
season after a Christian Stokes home run in the top of the seventh was enough
for Kelsey Nunley to down the Herd in Huntington. Kentucky sits at 23-3 on the
season atop the Southeastern Conference, and is a perfect 3-0 in league play
after sweeping the South Carolina Gamecocks last weekend in Columbia.
Head coach Rachel Lawson is already the winningest
coach in Kentucky softball history. She is sitting on 299 career wins at
Kentucky and can become the first UK head coach to 300 career wins with her
next win.
With a stolen base at Marshall on Wednesday, Sylver
Samuel now ties Meagan Aull for the most stolen bases in a career at UK with
71. The all-time leader is Leslie Kwiatkowski who stole 82 from 1998-2001.
UK has outscored its opponents 39-9 in the
first inning of games this season, and 21-1 in the second inning of games.
That’s a total of 60-10 in the first two innings of scoring in favor of
Kentucky this season. The Wildcats are 14-0 when they score in the first inning
this season and 19-0 when they score first. The Wildcats scored a run in the
first inning in all three of its wins at South Carolina on SEC Opening Weekend.
UK scored six in the first inning on Friday, three on Saturday and one run on Sunday.
All runs that were scored in the first inning proved to be eventual
game-winning runs.
Ole Miss enters the weekend with a 23-5
overall record and 3-2 on the road this season. The Rebels are 1-2 in the SEC,
after dropping a series against Missouri last weekend in Oxford to kick off
conference play. The Rebels leading offensive player is Hailey Lunderman, who
is batting .484 with 45 hits and 25 runs scored. Lunderman has 12 RBI this year
and is one of three players batting over .400 for Ole Miss this season.
Gameday Information
John Cropp Stadium
Gameday Webpage
Parking
Free game day parking is available the upper
and lower paved parking lots adjacent to John Cropp Stadium. In the event
that those lots fill spectators will be directed to park in the grass lot near
College Way and Wildcat Court.
Tickets
Tickets for Softball are sold through the UK Ticket
Office. For information about hosting Birthday Parties at John Cropp
Stadium please contact (859) 257.1818. The Ticket Office and stadium gates will
open 1 hour prior to first pitch.
Seating
All seating in John Cropp Stadium is general
admission and is first-come, first served.
Facility Address
John Cropp Stadium
570 Wildcat Court
Lexington, KY 40506
WatchESPN
Fans can watch the game on WatchESPN here:
Friday – http://es.pn/1TOKLrG
Saturday – http://es.pn/1TOKLrG
Sunday – http://es.pn/1R9FaFp
For the latest on the Kentucky softball team, follow @UKSoftball on Twitter, Instagram
and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
