Kentucky Softball Prepared for Tough Environment in Tuscaloosa
The Kentucky softball team heads into one of college softball’s most intimidating environments against one of the nation’s best teams this weekend as the NCAA Tournament continues. Kentucky will visit Alabama at Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa, home of one of the country’s loudest fan bases, for the Tuscaloosa Super Regional.
UK head coach Rachel Lawson knows that her team will face a boisterous, knowledgeable crowd in Tuscaloosa beginning on Friday.
“There’s more of them,” Lawson said when asked what makes Alabama’s home field advantage so strong. “That’s the thing. Just completely surrounding you. It’s one of the few times as a softball player that you’re in that environment. They’ve had a strong fan base for a long time. They’re a knowledgeable fan base. They know what’s going on, they cheer with the players. It’s a different type of environment that you’re really not used to that much.”
While most teams would be intimidated by that situation, UK softball head coach Rachel Lawson thinks her team is one of the few in the nation that could handle the challenge.
“If anybody is going to do it, it either has to be an SEC team or it has to be a Pac-12 team or a few of the teams in the Big 12,” Lawson said. “We’re the only people who have that type of environments right now. Right now, the only teams used to being in this hostile crowd are SEC teams, Pac-12 and a couple of the Big 12.”
Kentucky begins play in the Tuscaloosa Super Regional on Friday at 1 p.m. against the third-ranked Crimson Tide. It’s a three-game series with the winner earning a trip to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
Kentucky and Alabama have met four times this season with each team winning two. UK won two of three in the regular season in Lexington, something that Lawson says gives her team confidence.
“I think there’s a lot of confidence in that,” Lawson said. “You just have to know that you can play with a team and the fact that we were able to play with them and beat them gives us a big boost. Now, that was in Lexington, we had an amazing crowd that evening.”
Even the loss to Alabama in the SEC Tournament, which was played in Tuscaloosa, gives Lawson some sense of security.
“Playing them in the SEC Tournament, even though we lost, was helpful because we were in that environment a little bit,” Lawson said. “Confidence in knowing you can beat them and the familiarity with the environment is better for us moving into the games this weekend.”
Kentucky survived the Lexington Regional of the NCAA Tournament last week, coming out of the loser’s bracket to win. The Cats beat the Fighting Irish twice on Sunday to earn their latest Super Regional appearance. Lawson was proud of how her team responded to the adversity.
“We pride ourselves on our ability to answer back,” Lawson said. “I think our mentality to do that really helped us and our ability to stay in the moment and realize that we need to take this pitch by pitch really helped us.”
Two positions will likely play key roles in the outcome of the weekend series. Pitching, of course, will be vital to both teams. Kentucky’s Autumn Humes has had an outstanding senior season with a 22-8 record and a 2.25 ERA. Alabama’s Montana Fouts is 23-3 with a 1.49 ERA and has 291 strikeouts in 182.2 innings.
Each team also features an outstanding catcher. Alabama’s Bailey Hemphill, the SEC Player of the Year, is hitting .427 with 12 home runs and 52 runs batted in. Kentucky’s Kayla Kowalik is batting .497 with 12 home runs, 37 runs batted in and 22 stolen bases.
Lawson hopes that her team is ready to take on the Tide, and the environment, beginning on Friday in Tuscaloosa.
