NCAA softball tournament: Kentucky on wrong end of rout against Notre Dame
Kentucky, which had dominated opponents in previous NCAA Lexington Regional softball tournaments, experienced the hopeless feeling of one-sided defeat Saturday.
Notre Dame crushed Kentucky 12-3 to advance to Sunday’s finals. The game was halted after five innings because of a mercy rule.
Kentucky, which had outscored opponents 67-8 in its last three regional appearances, endured its most lopsided loss of the season (previous worst: 10-4 against LSU on April 25). UK also gave up a double-digit number of runs for only fourth time this season: Alabama beat UK 11-6 on March 27 while LSU won 10-7 and 10-4 in an April 25 doubleheader.
The loss sent Kentucky (40-14) into a second game Saturday. UK would play the winner between Northwestern-Miami (Ohio) for the chance to face Notre Dame again on Sunday.
Another Kentucky romp seemed in the offing early. UK batted around and knocked Notre Dame’s starting pitcher, Alexis Holloway, out of the game in the first inning.
Small ball put UK ahead as a run scored on a sacrifice bunt the batter beat out and another on a double steal.
Roughing up Holloway was not unprecedented. She started two games against Kentucky in a regional in 2018. In those games, she pitched a total of seven and two-thirds innings and gave up nine hits and 12 earned runs. UK won 10-0 and 8-0.
Thoughts of another Kentucky rout quickly disappeared. In unlikely and predictable ways, senior Morgan Ryan was largely responsible for a dramatic turnaround.
Notre Dame batted around in the second inning and took a 5-3 lead. Two errors by Kentucky shortstop Erin Coffel set the table. Then Ryan, who relieved Holloway in the first inning, hit a long home run over the left-field fence. In only her 12th at-bat of the season, she hit her first home run and drove in her first runs.
“It was kind of a personal goal of mine to hit one in a game before I graduated …,” Ryan said. “You could see the rest of the game we were footloose on the gas pedal and did not let up.”
Notre Dame Coach Deanna Gumpf also spoke of Ryan’s homer as a game-changer.
“It gave us a shot to get back in it fast,” Gumpf said. “And it’s not easy to get back in it when a team like Kentucky gets up on you. … It completely changed the momentum.”
Later in the inning, Katie Marino doubled off the right-field fence to drive in two more runs.
Notre Dame extended the lead to 6-3 in the third inning.
With two outs and a runner on first due to a lead off walk, Chelsea Purcell doubled in the run off the right-field wall.
UK starter Autumn Humes hit the next batter, which set up a two-run double by Abby Sweet. That drove Humes from the game.
After an infield hit, Sweet scored the fifth run of the inning on a double steal to put Kentucky behind 9-3.
Notre Dame added three more runs in the fifth inning. Two scored on a wild pitch. Sweet doubled in the third to make it 12-3.
Meanwhile, Ryan limited Kentucky to two singles over four and two-thirds innings. Ryan’s pitching did not surprise Gumpf.
“You know, a lot of teams don’t know about her,” the Notre Dame coach said. “Often she comes in and saves the day. You don’t realize how tough she is.”
The reward for Notre Dame was to take the rest of Saturday off.
“It’s wonderful to just take a deep breath right now and go back and get in the shower,” Gumpf said, “and enjoy that air conditioning.”
Lexington Regional
At UK’s John Cropp Stadium
Friday
Game 1: Kentucky 3, Northwestern 2
Game 2: Notre Dame 3, Miami (Ohio) 2
Saturday
Game 3: Notre Dame 12, Kentucky 3
Game 4: Northwestern 7, Miami (Ohio) 1
Game 5: Kentucky 7, Northwestern 2
Sunday
Game 6: Notre Dame vs. Kentucky, Noon
Game 7: If necessary, 2:30 p.m.
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 3:23 PM.
