Grace Baalman gave up just one hit in 6 1/3 innings against Notre Dame Sunday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Redemption is what Kentucky wanted and what Kentucky got Sunday. The Wildcats — the top seed in the NCAA Regional in Lexington — were embarrassed 12-3 by Notre Dame Saturday after taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Cats fell apart in all phases of the game.
Outfielder Tatum Spangler admitted the there was a “little bit” of wanting redemption Sunday.
“We knew we could not lose this regional and we had to prove ourselves a little bit and we did,” Spangler said.
Did they ever?
Kentucky not only beat Notre Dame twice Sunday to advance to the Super Regional to play host Alabama, but the Cats blanked the Irish in both games. UK won the first game 7-0 behind the pitching of Autumn Humes and took game two 4-0 behind Grace Baalman’s pitching.
How good were Humes and Baalman?
— Humes threw only 65 pitches in game one and allowed only three hits. She was never in any real trouble.
— Baalman went 6 1/3 innings in game two — Humes got two outs in the seventh after Baalman walked the leadoff hitter before Baalman came back in to get the final out — and threw just 58 pitches (37 strikes). She allowed just one hit, struck out two and walked only one.
That meant UK needed only 134 pitches in two games and allowed just six hits to the team that got 12 runs in innings two through six in Saturday’s rout of the Wildcats.
Coach Rachel Lawson admitted she had never had two pitches throw such dominating back-to-back games in postseason play.
“Fortunately Grace saved every strike she needed for this game,” Lawson joked. “She was incredibly efficient.
“Autumn Humes was incredible. She was just in total command. Changing speeds, her ball was jumping. She created mismatches. Yesterday she was trying to overdo it. Today she trusted her stuff and kept them off balance.”
Kentucky did more than just pitch well. The Cats got four runs in the top of the first inning in game one to set the tone and defensively did not make an error. It was not a flawless performance by the Cats — but it was close.
“I thought today we dominated all phases of the game. We pitched well, we did a good job offensively, we created some pressure with base running, and overall, we played pretty good defense,” Lawson said. “I was really impressed with how we came out and we dominated from the first inning of game one and then we continued through the second game.
“I’m very proud of the team for just the dominant effort that they had and the energy that it took to stay in the moment for that many pitches throughout the day.”
Baalman knew this was her best and most important performance of the season and maybe of her entire UK career.
“Today definitely meant the most because if we lost we were going to be done. It was good to go out there and see me and Autumn perform at our best,” Baalman said. “I was able to throw to all four quadrants today and normally at least one pitch is missing, but today I pretty much had all of them and that really helped.”
Spangler, who had a game-saving catch against Northwestern Saturday, had a home run and single in game one to drive in two runs and also scored a run and then had two more hits, including a double, along with a sacrifice fly in game two.
She knew Humes and Baalman were ready for big-time performances, including home run by Humes in game two that gave UK the lead.
“They just fire me up when they are out there and perform the way they did today. As soon as we got into the seventh inning, I told Grace, ‘You got this and we got you. You are going to get through this and we are going to get these last three outs.'” Spangler said.
“Just trusting that they are going to do what they are going to do and we have their back is awesome and a good feeling.”
