Pitching, Defense Carry Cats to Super Regional

Kentucky softball head coach Rachel Lawson has said many times that it takes great pitching and defense to win in the postseason. Her team proved that on Sunday in the Lexington Regional of the NCAA Women’s Softball Tournament.

Needing to beat Notre Dame twice, Kentucky got stellar pitching efforts from Autumn Humes in game one and Grace Baalman in game two to sweep the Irish and advance to the Super Regional.

Kentucky won game one 7-0 behind Humes, then blanked the Irish 4-0 in game two behind Baalman. It was 14 innings of shutout softball against a team that scored 12 runs against Kentucky in five innings on Saturday.

When asked if she had ever had pitchers perform so well in such a pressure situation, Lawson’s answer was simple.

“No, never,” she said.

Humes went the distance in the first game, pitching seven inning and allowing just three hits. She did not walk or strike out a batter in the game, relying on her defense behind her.

Lawson was impressed with Humes on Sunday.

“She was incredible. She was in total command,” Lawson said. “She was changing speeds when she wanted to, the ball was really jumping when she wanted to throw rise. She created matchup problems for them. Today, she trusted her stuff and she commanded everything that she threw so she kept them off balance.”

In game two, Baalman pitched into the seventh inning before Humes came on to get a pair of outs, then Baalman came back in to get the final out of the game. In total, Baalman pitched six and a third innings, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out two.

Lawson had high praise for Baalman.

“She was also incredibly efficient.”

The Cats also played outstanding defense in both games, with big plays by Emmy Blane and Renee Abernathy, among others. The pitchers were thankful for their defense.

“Our defense was totally flying around and making plays and even making plays they shouldn’t be making,” Humes said. “I felt really confident with the way they were playing and it gave me more peace on the mound. And when your offense puts up the numbers they did today, it makes my job a lot easier.”

Baalman agreed.

“It’s a real confidence boost when you have a pitch that you think they’re going to get a hit off of and then you see somebody catch it,” Baalman said. “The outfield play this weekend was unreal.”

Outfielder Tatum Spangler knows that it’s very important for the Cats’ defense to play well behind their pitchers.

“The grass is our area and we have to do everything we can to protect it,” Spangler said. “That means putting your body to use and doing anything you can do.”

Overall, it was a total performance all day long, according to Lawson.

“Today, we dominated all phases of the game. We pitched well, we did a good job offensively and overall, we played pretty good defense. I was really impressed with how we came out and dominated from first inning of game one and continued through the second game.”

With the win, Kentucky advances to the Super Regional to face Alabama. The Cats will need the outstanding pitching and defense to continue against  one of the nation’s best teams.