Pitching was a concern for UK softball. Now, it’s leading the Cats in SEC title push.
Entering the season, one of the biggest concerns for head coach Rachel Lawson and the perennially talented Kentucky softball team was pitching, and replacing the top-level talent that had departed the circle.
UK needed to replace pitchers Grace Baalman and Autumn Humes, who combined to toss more than 282 innings last season, equal to more than 68% of the total innings pitched by Kentucky.
Lawson knew Kentucky would have the people — with a seven-player pitching staff — but the intricacies of Lawson calling the correct pitches from the dugout and players being able to handle an increased workload were still concerns when Kentucky held its media day in early February.
“We’ve just got to figure out how to put it together as a staff, we have plenty of people now that they’ve developed their out pitches,” Lawson said. “But we don’t know quite yet how we all fit together.”
Now in mid-April, it’s the pitching staff that’s helping lead Kentucky in a push for the Southeastern Conference championship.
Currently 28-9 on the season, 8-4 in SEC games and having won six of its last seven games, the Wildcats’ pitching staff has excelled of late.
UK has allowed three or fewer runs in six of its last eight games, including Tuesday night’s 9-0 run-rule, no-hitter victory over in-state rival Louisville.
Sophomore Stephanie Schoonover (5-2 record, 3.33 ERA in 42 innings pitched), who tossed her second no-hitter of the season in the win over Louisville, credited in-game opportunities as the reason for the consistency displayed by the Wildcats’ pitching staff.
“A lot of us have gotten a lot of innings, (Lawson) has thrown all of us in there, mixing us up,” Schoonover said after no-hitting Louisville. “(Lawson) has harped a lot in practice (about) hitting our spots, spinning early break, late break and we’ve worked on that a ton.”
All seven UK pitchers have pitched at least 18 2/3 innings this season, led by junior Miranda Stoddard with 59 1/3. By comparison, four pitchers handle the bulk of the work for this weekend’s opponent, Arkansas.
UK’s wins leader is freshman Alexia Lacatena (7-2 record, 2.84 ERA in 44 1/3 innings pitched), who arrived in Lexington after pitching for Italy in last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
Senior Tatum Spangler (4-0 record, 0.69 ERA and 1.18 WHIP) has allowed just four runs in 20 1/3 innings pitched.
Lawson, a former collegiate catcher at Massachusetts who serves as UK’s pitching coach and calls each Kentucky pitch from the dugout, has gone through the trial and error of figuring out each pitcher’s tendencies.
The result?
A seven-pitcher deep staff with the ability to adjust to different opponents and situations, and one that Lawson is now more comfortable managing.
“As the pitch-caller, I need to know them really well,” Lawson said Tuesday. “So I’m probably doing a better job for them (now). I’m getting to know what they can do, what combos they like to throw, what counts they like to throw certain pitches in and because of that I think it’s helping them have better performances.”
This increased comfort level is something Schoonover feels as well.
“She really makes it a focus to get on our rhythm,” Schoonover said. “Coach Lawson really tries to work with us on that to keep our rhythm going so we can dominate.”
This process wasn’t without growing pains.
UK has won three consecutive SEC weekend series, starting with a walk-off series win over Auburn at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington on March 27.
But even after that game, Lawson said she was still searching for better consistency from her pitching staff.
After Tuesday’s win at Louisville, Lawson discussed the progress made in this area.
“I’ve felt really good about a lot of pitchers,” Lawson said. “We’re trending in the right direction. We’ve got about a month left until the postseason, so hopefully we’ll keep moving the right way and we’ll be able to make a deep run in the tournament.”
Kentucky’s team ERA of 2.93 ranks sixth overall in the SEC, and UK’s pitchers are top of the league in SEC games only with an era of 3.24.
and is a paltry number compared to opponents’ 6.69 ERA against the Cats.
“Our staff is super unique because we have seven pitchers on staff,” sophomore infielder Erin Coffel said. “Honestly, coming into a game, it’s like a dice roll. Each pitcher brings something special to the plate and that’s super unique for us.”
Weekend series to determine SEC leader
UK’s pitching staff will be tested this weekend in one of the most important series of Kentucky’s season.
The Cats will travel to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for a three-game series against No. 7 Arkansas, currently top of the SEC and the best hitting team in the conference (.345 team batting average with 73 home runs and a .633 slugging percentage).
Arkansas is 30-7 overall and 9-3 in SEC games.
The winner of this weekend’s series will be guaranteed at least a share of the SEC lead after the weekend.
It’s a series that will prepare Kentucky for the postseason and offers the chance for the Wildcats to move closer toward their first ever SEC regular-season championship.
It will be a stern test for UK’s pitchers, but it’s hard to enter the series in better form than Kentucky is showing in the circle right now, having allowed just four runs in the last 20 innings with three different pitchers.
Entering the weekend, the top six teams in the SEC standings look like this (SEC record, winning percentage): Arkansas (9-3, .750), Alabama (10-5, .667), Kentucky (8-4, .667), Georgia (7-5, .583), Mississippi State (7-5, .583), Tennessee (8-6, .571).
UK is 7-3 in true road games this season, including an impressive three-game sweep of LSU to begin this month.
“Our ability to fight back and to get back into games has happened over and over again,” Lawson said. “I just think the fact that we’re resilient is what you need to be good on the road.”
This weekend
No. 8 Kentucky at No. 7 Arkansas
What: Three-game SEC softball series
Where: Bogle Park in Fayetteville, Ark.
When: 7 p.m. Friday; 8 p.m. Saturday; Noon Sunday
TV/online: Friday, SEC Network Plus; Saturday, ESPN2; Sunday, SEC Network
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
