Mallory Peyton (UK Athletics Photo)
It would have been easy for Mallory Peyton and Kayla Kowalik to feel “cheated” because of the 2020 softball season they lost. The Wildcats were 20-4, including 2-1 in SEC play, when the 2020 season was cut short because of COVID-19 and both players were blossoming offensive stars.
Peyton hit .379 with 11 home runs, four doubles, and 35 RBIs in 2020 while Kowalik hit .373 with eight triples, four doubles, and 13 RBIs while stealing 11 bases in 11 attempts.
“It has been a roller coaster of emotions and everything. I would not say cheated is the right word. There is always something to take away from any situation,” Peyton said before UK opened the season last weekend with a three-game sweep of Samford.
“You can not always control what life throws at you like what a pitcher does but you have the opportunity in the way you respond. Our team a great job kind of responding with a positive attitude.”
She talked about how the team competitions during at-home summer workouts and players were texting, sending in workout information, and finding a way to get together in a positive way even virtually.
“We could have easily not worked out all summer,” Peyton, a first baseman, said.
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Kowalik, a catcher-outfielder, said not only did UK miss finishing the season but has missed the normal campus life.
“We could have spent last fall thinking we were cheated out of a season or we could look at it as my opportunity to play. A lot of my teammates did not know what we were going to get (this season), but we got to practice and took it as a new challenge.”
Kentucky coach Rachel Lawson was “thankful” the SEC was one of the few leagues that has tried to maintain as normal a schedule this season as possible during the pandemic.
“We are still pushing to play 56 games and are still allowed to play outside competition,” Lawson said. “There has always been that light at the end of the tunnel. If we had got shut down completely or only got to play conference games I imagine it would have been a lot harder on our players because they would not have known what was out there.”
She was proud of her team’s off-season self-discipline and the way players worked out so much even while they were off-campus to stay in playing shape.
“Our team has done a great job with COVID. Our players have had to just hang out in the dorms and not mingle with anyone,” Lawson said. “I don’t know anything about military life but I imagine this has been close to that and I am proud of how our players have handled that.”
