Kentucky players and coaches celebrate after beating Northwestern to stay alive in NCAA Tournament play. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Rachel Lawson thought her team played “Kentucky softball” in its 7-2 win over Northwestern Saturday in a NCAA Tournament elimination game. But how would she describe how her team played a few hours earlier when it was run-ruled 12-3 by Notre Dame in five innings in the winner’s bracket final.
“It was Kentucky softball if you put every bad thing we have done all season and put it in one game. We were terrible,” Lawson said after the second game win. “I hope everybody turned it off. We couldn’t play defense. We couldn’t hit. We weren’t pitching well.”
But because UK did recoup in time to overcome an early 1-0 deficit against Northwestern, it gets another shot at Notre Dame today. If UK can sweep two games, it will advance to the Super Regional again. If Notre Dame wins the first game at noon or the second game if UK wins to force another game, the Irish will advance.
“Softball teams are used to playing doubleheaders. Fortunately, we have a pretty deep pitching staff and pitchers that are strong and tough,” Lawson said. “We are resilient and have had to bounce back all year. Notre Dame is a great team and hits well. We have got to play well to beat them.”
Senior first baseman Mallory Peyton, who drove in three runs in the Northwestern win, said UK could not focus on the Notre Dame loss.
“We turned it around (against Northwestern). Our offense produced a lot better. We are in a really good spot going forward,” Peyton said.
Peyton said Kentucky is a “different team” than the one that self-destructed against Notre Dame earlier Saturday. She believes UK was playing “drastically different” by the end of the Northwestern game when the defense got sharper and hitters were making better contact.
“We were playing more as a team and our communication was exponentially better. We just have to flush that game (with Notre Dame),” Peyton said.
Center fielder Renee Abernathy had three hits in the second game to raise her average to .358 — second-best on the team. She is as optimistic as Peyton about today.
“Tonight’s win is huge for us. After this morning with Notre Dame, they came out and played really well, and we took what we could from that game, and we learned, and we came out charging hard and our offense got rolling today,” Abernathy said.
“I think that tomorrow we are going to continue this momentum with our offense and play Kentucky softball.”
Peyton has been on two teams that made the Super Regionals in 2018 and 2019. She says despite the loss to Northwestern, this team can still reach the Super Regional.
“Just because we lost the first one does not mean we cannot go to Supers,” Peyton said. “As long as we have outs there is time to put runs on the board. We just try to focus on that and play our best.”
