No. 17 Kentucky Faces No. 16 Georgia in SEC Series of the Week

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Riding a school-record 13-game winning streak, the No. 17 Kentucky softball team will open Southeastern Conference play on Saturday afternoon as the Wildcats travel to No. 16 Georgia to face the 24-3 Bulldogs in the SEC Network Featured Series of the Week.

All three games of the series Saturday through Monday will be shown live on the SEC Network, ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app with Mary Neely and Women’s College World Series analysts Michele Smith and Amanda Scarbrough on the call. Saturday’s series opener will start at Noon ET with both Sunday and Monday’s game times set for 7 p.m. ET. 

Kentucky has won three tournaments in a row with perfect records, including the FAU Invite in Boca Raton, Florida, the Coach B Classic in Carbondale, Illinois, and the John Cropp Classic in Lexington, Kentucky this past weekend. The school record for most consecutive wins was broken on Sunday afternoon as the Wildcats downed the No. 15 Michigan Wolverines 5-1 on the heels of a Meagan Prince complete game and Breanne Ray’s three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to seal it. 

During the winning streak, Kentucky has a staff ERA of 0.72 and five shutouts while striking out exactly 100 batters the last 13 games and holding opponents to a .118 batting average. At the plate, the Wildcats are scoring 5.3 runs per game and have knocked 12 homers. 

Kentucky has not won a game at Jack Turner Stadium in Athens since the 2007 season – when UK’s first All-American, and current assistant coach Molly Johnson-Belcher was a freshman. Head coach Rachel Lawson has never won a game in Athens as the Wildcats head coach. 

The Georgia Bulldogs are 24-3 on the season and sitting at No. 16 in both the National Fastpitch Coaches’ Association poll and the USA Softball/ESPN.com top 25. UGA was scheduled to play a midweek game against Georgia Tech, but due to extremely low temperatures across all of the southeast, that game was cancelled. Sydni Emanuel leads the offensive charge for the Dawgs, who is hitting .522 on the season with 27 RBI. In the circle, returner Brittany Grey leads the charge with a 1.62 ERA as one of four effective pitchers that Bulldogs will throw. 

This weekend’s match-up pits two of the fastest teams not only in the conference – but in the nation against each other this weekend. The Wildcats have stolen 52 bases already this season and sit 12th nationally in that category. Georgia is one of only two teams that have stolen more bases in the SEC than Kentucky – as the Dawgs have stolen 82 bases this season to lead the SEC, and sits fifth nationally in that category at 3.04 stolen bases per game. 

This will be the opening weekend of conference action for both UK and Georgia. The Wildcats and Bulldogs in addition to the Ole Miss Rebels were on an opening-week bye last weekend as the other 10 teams in the league opened conference action. 

Saturday, March 18 – Noon ET, SEC Network

Sunday, March 19 – 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network

Monday, March 20 – 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network 

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