Softball to Welcome 13th Ranked Kentucky at Dot Hicks Field Wednesday

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HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall softball team is back at Dot Hicks Field for a midweek single game against No. 13 Kentucky Wildcats. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

The Thundering Herd enters the game with an overall record of 19-7. The Wildcats come in at 20-7 overall.

Fans who cannot make it out to the game can tune in to the live stream on Facebook Live as Scott Hall will have the call. The game will also be broadcast on 88.1 WMUL-FM with audio streamed online at www.marshall.edu/wmul.

Last Time Out: Conference USA Opener at Charlotte - Marshall takes series 2-1
Marshall came out hot in its first Conference USA series of the season, powered by freshman Mya Stevenson's incredible performance. The Herd took the first two games, 7-5 and 13-0. The 49ers battled back in the series finale with an 11-6 win.

Game one was a back and forth battle as Marshall scored first and then Charlotte responded in the next inning to tie the game. Stevenson scored following her first career triple in the second inning, but Charlotte tied the game at 1-1. In the third, sophomore Aly Harrell smashed her seventh home run of the year to give the Herd a two-run lead. The 49ers answered with two runs as well in the bottom of the third. Marshall took a 4-3 lead in the fourth, and after a defensive stop in the bottom of the fourth, Stevenson added two more runs on the board with her seventh homer of the season. Charlotte made it a one-run game in the sixth but Stevenson was the leadoff batter in the seventh and completed the first cycle in Marshall program history with a double to left. Two batters later, senior Hayden Ellis drove in Stevenson for a two-run lead. Junior Kailee Williamson and the Marshall defense closed out the game in the bottom of the seventh with a three-up, three-down inning.

Marshall stayed hot in game two, exploding out of the gate with four runs in the first. Senior Hannah Giammarino led off with a solo homer, her fourth. Then sophomore Armani Brown got on with an infield single and then Harrell was walked. Stevenson then crushed her eighth homer of the season, driving in three more. Marshall continued the offensive barrage with three more runs in the second, three in the third and finally three more in the fifth for the 13-0, five-inning win. Williamson earned the win, her sixth of the year. Stevenson finished 3-for-3 with seven RBI, tied for the second most in a game in team history.

The Herd scored six more runs in game three, however Charlotte's offense came out ready to salvage a game out of the series with 16 hits and 11 runs. In the loss, Ellis was 3-of-4 at the plate with a three-run home run, the second of her career and first since 2016 at Liberty.

Mya Stevenson Hits for the Cycle and Continued to Smash her way into the MUSB Record Book
Freshman Mya Stevenson was named Conference USA Player of the Week on March 18, after a weekend that has never been seen in the annals of Marshall softball. Stevenson began the weekend series at Charlotte with a triple down the right-field line in her first plate appearance. That shot was the beginning of history. In the third, Mya dropped a single into shallow center field. In the fifth, she smashed her seventh home run of the year for a two-run shot to right. She was given another chance at the plate leading off the top of the seventh and the Herd leading by one. Stevenson smacked a pitch to left and legged out a double. It was the first cycle in Marshall softball history.

Her bat stayed ablaze in game two. In the first inning with two runners on, Stevenson crushed her now team-leading eighth homer of the season and gave Marshall a 4-run lead. In the second, Charlotte opted to intentionally walk Aly Harrell to load the bases to get to Stevenson who was already a combined 5-for-5 with four extra base hits. The freshman ripped a two-run double to left-center and now had five RBI in the game. She came to the plate again in the third with two outs and the bases loaded, and responded with her third double of the day and drove in two more runs to give her seven RBI, just one short of the Herd program record. Stevenson stepped to the plate again in the fifth but this time Charlotte did not give her a chance to do anymore damage, walking her for the first time in the series. She ended the Saturday doubleheader a perfect 7-for-7 at the plate, reached base safely in all eight plate appearances, three doubles, a triple, two home runs, nine RBI and slugged 2.571.

In game three, Stevenson looked like she was going to continue her hot weekend with an RBI double in the first inning. It was her seventh extra base hit of the series. The 49ers retired Stevenson in her next three at-bats. However, she finished the weekend batting .727, eight hits, four runs, four doubles, triple, two home runs, 10 RBI, slugged 1.818 and an on base percentage of .750.

Scouting No. 13 Kentucky
Kentucky comes in on an 11-game winning streak, 20-7 overall and 6-0 in the SEC. During the recent streak, the Wildcats have outscored the opposition 94-22. This will be the seventh-straight time that Marshall and Kentucky have played with UK being ranked. As a team, the Wildcats are hitting .315 this season with 84 extra base hits (44 doubles, seven triples & 33 home runs). Abbey Cheek, who was a freshman during the 2016 meeting, leads the team hitting .471 this season with 32 hits, scored 25 runs, hit six doubles, six home runs and driven in 28 runs. Katie Reed, who also played in the 2016 matchup, is hitting .373 with five doubles, one triple and five homers. In the circle, the staff ERA is 2.64. Grace Baalman leads with 59 innings pitched, has a 3.56 ERA, a 5-3 record and 46 strikeouts. Autumn Humes has the most wins with seven and Meghan Schorman leads with a 1.87 ERA and has four wins in 30 innings. On the defensive side, UK has a .968 fielding percentage and has turned 17 double plays.

The Series: 14 meetings, UK leads 12-2
The series between Marshall and Kentucky began on Feb. 21, 1997, in Chapel Hill, as UK won the neutral site game 1-0. The Herd won the next meeting on April 16, 1997, in Lexington (4-0). Marshall has only beaten the Wildcats just once more on Feb. 23, 2001 (in Chattanooga), 10-5. Since then, UK has won the last 10 matchups, including a meeting in the 2013 NCAA Regionals, hosted in Lexington. It was the fourth-straight time that the teams met with Kentucky ranked in the top 25. The game went into the eighth inning before the Wildcats came away with the 2-1 victory. In 2014, the teams played in Huntington for the first time since 2011 and UK was the 8th ranked team in the nation. The Herd lost 6-2. The last meeting came in 2016, again at Dot Hicks Field. Marshall held its own against 15th ranked UK losing just 1-0. Then sophomore Jordan Colliflower recorded the first hit of the game for Marshall in the fifth. The game was played in front of a packed house of over 1,000 people at the Dot. Marshall and Kentucky were scheduled to meet in Lexington in 2017 but the game was rained out. The Herd went back to Lexington for the 2017 NCAA Regionals, but Marshall was eliminated before getting a chance to play against UK.

Following the midweek contest, Marshall stays at home as the UTSA Roadrunners come in for a three-game series Saturday and Sunday, March 23-24.

For all of the latest information on the Marshall Softball team, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdSB, Facebook at Marshall University Softball and on www.herdzone.com.

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Softball to Welcome 13th Ranked Kentucky at Dot Hicks Field Wednesday

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Players Mentioned

Armani Brown

Jordan Colliflower

Hayden Ellis

Hannah Giammarino

Aly Harrell

Mya Stevenson

Kailee Williamson

Marshall University Athletics