Softball Seniors Leave Lasting Wildcat Legacy
It was a scene familiar to anyone who follows college sports: seniors, faced with the end of their careers, showing the emotions that the end so often brings.
This seemed different though. Special.
That’s because special is exactly what these seniors are, and it didn’t take a season-ending loss at Washington in super regionals to make Rachel Lawson realize that.
“We’re not happy that we’re not moving on, but we had a really good season for us,” Lawson said. “Certainly our senior class had a lot of great individual accolades, so it’s been a good time for Kentucky softball.”
That senior class – Abbey Cheek, Katie Reed, Jenny Schaper, Kelsee Henson and Sarah Rainwater – led Kentucky to a 36-23 season and a third straight trip to supers.
“You have the SEC Player of the Year (Cheek),” Lawson said. “You have three all-conference players (Cheek, Reed and Schaper). They’re also outstanding in the classroom. They just do everything the right way. I’m really proud of them for being Wildcats.”
The five seniors arrived at Kentucky after the program had already been established as a contender on the national stage. The Wildcats had reached supers four times in five season, culminating in a 2015 trip to the Women’s College World Series. UK’s seniors fell short of their goal of a return trip,
“We’ve been around since our first supers in 2011, so we’re no strangers to this part,” Lawson said. “But the thing that is so cool about this class is they respect the tradition of Kentucky softball. They honored that tradition, but then they built on it and they built their own. I think that’s the sign of a great program and the sign of a program that’s going to be lasting for a long time.”
What the senior class built is the best offense in program history these last two seasons. That culminated in a 2019 season that saw UK bat .308 as a team and average 6.35 runs per game – 11th in the country.
“This team’s pretty cool,” Lawson said. “This senior class is great because we’ve always been known as a team that played great defense and who could pitch. We’d never been known as an offensive team. We didn’t really show it this weekend, but overall for the past two years this particular senior class, along with their supporting cast, has done a really good job putting us on the national level offensively.”
UK’s five seniors will now move on to the next phase of their lives. That means postgraduate work for all five, including dental school for Reed. Reed and Cheek will also be teammates once again, as both were drafted by the Chicago Bandits of National Pro Fastpitch, but not wearing Blue and White.
That’s sad, no question, and leaves UK with plenty of production to replace next season. The Cats will be counting on the legacy left by those seniors to do it.
“I think that’s something that we will carry with us for the future,” Lawson said. “I think it’s something that will help us get over the edge and then continue to allow us to go on to Oklahoma City.”
