No. 18 Kentucky Softball Falls to No. 1 UCLA in Palm Springs
No. 18 Kentucky softball (9-2-1) fell to the top-ranked and still-undefeated UCLA Bruins, 6-3, on Friday night in Palm Springs, Calif., handing UK its second loss of the season. The ‘Cats nearly pulled off the upset, putting the tying runs in scoring position in both the fifth and seventh innings, but ultimately came up just short.
Kentucky is now 2-1 so far during this five-game West Coast trip, which is part of the 2023 Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic. UK beat No. 8 Washington in thrilling, extra-inning fashion on Thursday, also taking down San Diego State later that same night. The Cats will play two more games in California today before heading home to Lexington: No. 17 Northwestern (8:30 p.m. EST) and UC-Riverside (11:00 p.m. EST).
Starting on the mound for the ‘Cats against UCLA was sophomore Izzy Harrison.
Pitching issues for the ‘Cats
Harrison had a solid strikeout to get Kentucky’s first out of the game, but she wound up giving up two runs in the bottom of the first.
With UCLA taking an early 2-0 lead, Harrison was replaced by senior Sloan Gayan to stop the bleeding. Although the Cats had no success in their first outing, junior Grace Lorsung sent a ball over the fence.
Lorsung’s homer cut the Kentucky deficit by one, making it 2-1 at the top of the second. But UK’s pitching woes continued into the third as Gayan gave up two more runs.
Down 4-1 in the bottom of the third, graduate student Kennedy Sullivan entered the game for UK. Both teams went on to struggle on offense up until the fifth.
Hope from top of the lineup
At the top of the fifth, graduate student Kayla Kowalik stepped up to the plate and hit a RBI single to bring a run in.
With two on and two outs, Kentucky senior Rylea Smith cut the deficit to three after another RBI single which made it 6-3. Junior Erin Coffel was up to bat after Smith and hit a ball that was within inches of going over the fence but was snatched by UCLA at the wall.
The ‘Cats went into the bottom of the fifth with some momentum thanks to Kowalik and Smith. With Kentucky finding success, UCLA did not have any luck offensively in the bottom of the fifth.
The score remained 6-3 going into the bottom of the sixth after no runs were brought in by the ‘Cats.
UCLA star pitcher stumped UK
The star pitcher for UCLA, Megan Faraimo, took to the mound at the top of the sixth, preventing Kentucky from tacking on another run. But Sullivan was able to hold the Bruins to no runs at the bottom of the sixth as the score was still 6-3.
With three outs between them and a second loss on the season, the ‘Cats tried to muster up any last effort in the top of the seventh.
Up to bat for UK was sophomore Margaret Tobias as she hit a single to get on at first. Tobias was able to make it to third off an error by UCLA and a single from freshman Lauryn Borzilleri.
With no outs and runners on first and third, Kowalik was up to bat for the ‘Cats but struck out. Faraimo struck out Smith as well which left Coffel up as the last hope for UK. Unfortunately, she was unable to get the final hit as Kentucky went down 6-3.
From hitting struggles to pitching issues, the odds were stacked against the ‘Cats.
Kentucky heads into the weekend where they will face No. 17 ranked Northwestern and UC-Riverside on Saturday to round out play in Palm Springs.
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