No. 18 Kentucky Heads West for Midweek in Bowling Green
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After picking up its third top-10 win of the season on Sunday afternoon in College Station against No. 9 Texas A&M, the No. 20/18 Kentucky softball team will set its sights on a Wednesday night midweek game at Western Kentucky slated for 7 p.m. ET from Bowling Green, Ky.
The Wildcats have been solid in non-conference games this season, and have hit the cover off the ball in those games. The Wildcats are hitting above .300 and have outscored their opponents by more than 75 runs in non-conference games this year.
Katie Reed leads the Wildcats at the plate with a .419 average on the year with five home runs and 29 RBI. The leading power hitter for UK continues to be junior Abbey Cheek, who has a team-leading 11 home runs and 40 RBI. It was freshman Mallory Peyton who busted onto the scene this past week, launching two home runs against the Texas A&M Aggies down in College Station for her fourth and fifth of the season.
Led by fifth-year head coach Amy Tudor, the WKU Hilltoppers are having another impressive season, currently sitting at 24-18 overall and 7-8 inside Conference USA play.
The Hilltoppers have played one power-five team this season, and that resulted in a 7-3 loss to the LSU Tigers. Kentucky swept LSU in the regular season. Other common opponents between UK and WKU are Eastern Kentucky, Middle Tennessee State, SIUE and Dayton. The Wildcats won all games against those common opponents.
WKU was where Rachel Lawson got her first head coaching job. She spent three seasons at WKU compiling a 92-84 overall record in her trio of years as a Topper with a 30-31 C-USA record. Lawson is 8-0 all-time when facing her former employer as a Wildcat.
WKU is led offensively by Paige Carter, who is hitting .347 with five home runs and a team-best 34 RBI. There are three players with five home runs this season with Carter, Kelsey McGuffin and Rebekah Engelhardt leading the way.
In the circle, the Toppers are paced by Kelsey Aikey and Shelby Nunn who split a majority of the innings. Aikey has a 2.95 ERA with a 10-6 record, while Nunn, who throws a majority of the innings, is 13-10 with a 3.28 ERA in the circle this season.
Kentucky leads the all-time series with WKU 15-6. The teams did not play last year due to a rainout in Lexington. The last time UK played in Bowling Green was 2016, and the Wildcats won, 5-0.
For the latest on UK Softball, follow the Wildcats on Twitter and Instagram at @UKSoftball.
