No. 11 Kentucky Travels To Louisville For Midweek Showdown
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 11 Kentucky softball team will make the short trip west Wednesday night to the Derby City for its only scheduled meeting of the season with the Louisville Cardinals at Ulmer Stadium. The rivalry game will start at 6 p.m. ET and be shown live on ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN app.
Kentucky is coming off a series loss to the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, Ala., after taking game one Friday night, 3-2. UK received strong pitching of Kelsey Nunley and a two-run home run from Nikki Sagermann in the third inning to give UK its third-ever win at the Rhodes House.
The Wildcats are currently slotted at No. 12 in this week's NCAA RPI release, looking to finish the season ranked in the top 16 to be afforded the opportunity to host an NCAA Tournament Regional for the third time in program history.
Wednesday will be Kentucky’s only game of the week, as the Wildcats will enjoy its Southeastern Conference bye week over the weekend and use that time to charge up for the rest of the regular season and the postseason. The Wildcats will host Mississippi State in the final SEC weekend series May 6-8 at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington.
Fans should be advised that Saturday’s game has been moved up to a Noon ET first pitch to accommodate the SEC Network+, with all Senior Day festivities beginning at approximately 11:45 a.m. ET from JCS. With 11 more wins, the senior class of 2016 would become the all-time winningest class in program history, which would surpass the 2014 Women’s College World Series seniors who graduated that year.
Kentucky currently is sitting at No. 3 in the SEC standings with a 14-7 mark in league play. The Wildcats have played three more games than every team in the league other than LSU. The Wildcats, with a 14-7 record to this point, have clinched a spot in the 2016 SEC Tournament which will be held in Starkville, Miss., May 11-14, and are fighting it out for a bye in the first day of action. The top four seeds will receive a bye into the quarterfinals on Thursday. Kentucky has clinched at least a top-eight seed in this year’s championship.
Louisville enters Wednesday's game with a 32-10 overall record and a 13-5 mark inside of Atlantic Coast Conference action with an NCAA RPI of 50th in the nation. The Cards are coming off a weekend series win over the Syracuse Orange, after winning games one and three to capture the series over their ACC foe.
The Cards have not played an SEC opponent yet this season but have played six games against the Big 10, splitting two games with Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin in pre-conference tournament action.
Maryssa Becker leads the Cards both offensively and in the circle in 2016, sporting a .425 batting average in UL's 42 games played with seven homers and a team-leading 53 runs driven in. She has also thrown a team-high 160 innings in the circle for UL, touting a 1.75 ERA and a 19-6 record with 140 strikeouts on the season.
Game Schedule
Wednesday, April 27
No. 11 Kentucky at Louisville – 6 p.m. ET (ESPN3, WatchESPN)
Ulmer Stadium
Louisville, Ky.
For the latest on the Kentucky softball team, follow @UKSoftball on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.