No. 17/13 Kentucky Opens 2018 Season at New Mexico State
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The 11th season of the Rachel Lawson era in Lexington begins on Saturday night in Las Cruces, New Mexico as the No. 17/13 Kentucky softball team will open a three-game set with the New Mexico State Aggies. The Wildcats and Aggies will play a doubleheader on Saturday before wrapping up the series on Sunday afternoon.
Saturday’s games will be at 6 and 8 p.m. ET with Sunday’s series finale at 4 p.m. ET. There will be no live video of any of the games, but live stats will be available by accessing the links on UKathletics.com. New Mexico State will be hosting a live radio broadcast for Sunday’s game.
The $1.2 million, 1,050 seat New Mexico State Softball Complex will be the sight for the weekend’s series in Las Cruces. Opened in 1981, this is the 38th year of softball at the complex with its most recent renovation taking place in 2000.
Kentucky begins the season ranked No. 13 in the USA Softball/ESPN.com top-25 poll, its highest ranking to begin a season since 2015. The Wildcats return NFCA All-American Katie Reed at SS along with their entire infield and starting pitcher Erin Rethlake from a season ago. Rethlake led the Wildcats with a 1.95 ERA last season and pitched in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, NCAA Lexington Regional final, and game two of the Eugene Super Regional.
Led by Kathy Rodolph, the Aggies enter 2018 off another NCAA Tournament appearance last season, when NMST went to second-seeded Arizona’s Tempe Regional, and was eliminated in the first elimination game. The Aggies return Kelsey Horton, who was named the WAC’s Preseason Player of the Year earlier in the month. The WAC coaches also selected Horton, along with Nikki Butler and Rachel Rodriguez, to the Preseason All-WAC team. NMST was picked to finish second in the WAC this season by the league coaches.
The all-time series has seen just one game played between the two sides, with UK winning it in 2001.
UK will continue to have speed throughout its lineup in 2018 with freshman Lauren Johnson joining the mix of Bailey Vick and Erin Rethlake who all have slapping ability in the box, with Vick and Johnson hitting from the left side.
In the outfield, senior slugger Brooklin Hinz is back who is a home-run threat every time she steps in the box and is joined in the grass by Sarah Rainwater and Vick.
For the latest on the Kentucky softball team, follow @UKSoftball on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
