NCAA Softball Tournament: Kentucky hosting hot hitters and nation’s winningest team

Kentucky for the fifth straight NCAA Softball Tournament is hosting a regional, and will try to earn its fourth straight super-regional appearance this weekend at John Cropp Stadium.

UK, the 14th overall national seed in the field of 64, was paired against another group of Wildcats, Northwestern, in the Lexington Regional’s Friday opener. Miami (Ohio) will face Notre Dame in the second game, setting up the remainder of the weekend slate.

NCAA regionals are double-elimination events. Friday’s winners and losers will square off Saturday afternoon before a third Saturday game — scheduled for 5 p.m. — that will eliminate a second team. Up to two games could be played Sunday, starting at noon.

The UK-Northwestern tilt is scheduled for a noon broadcast on ESPN2, while Miami-Notre Dame will be streamed via ESPN3. The remainder of the regional’s broadcast schedule was still to be determined as of Thursday morning.

The stakes

Possibly at stake for the Wildcats is an opportunity to host a super regional, something they haven’t done since 2016. Winning won’t be enough, though; No. 3 seed Alabama, against whom UK has split four meetings in 2021, would have to be knocked out of the tournament this weekend for the Cats to spend another weekend in Lexington. With that in mind, UK fans should don some orange; Clemson, which is 42-6 and ranked No. 13 in the most recent coaches poll, is in the Crimson Tide’s regional. This was Clemson’s first full year as a program, so if reaching its first NCAA Tournament wasn’t enough motivation, being grouped with one of the nation’s best teams ought to be.

Beyond reaching a seventh super regional in their last eight NCAA Tournament appearances, UK hopes to make its second College World Series and first since 2014. That group won 50 games — even if they were to win the national championship, these Wildcats would fall one win shy of that school-record mark — but finished with a 13-11 regular-season mark against Southeastern Conference teams, the same as this year’s team.

The region

The make-up of this year’s regional is almost identical to the 2015 regional hosted by Notre Dame; Ball State was in that pod rather than Miami.

As it is this year, Kentucky was paired against Northwestern, the only meeting ever between the two schools. UK beat the opposing Cats, 5-4, to kick off a weekend sweep that concluded with a 4-3 win over Notre Dame. UK has beaten the Fighting Irish three more times since, including twice in the 2018 Lexington Regional. The Wildcats against Notre Dame are 5-1 all-time, the only loss coming in 2000. The Fighting Irish have played in every NCAA Tournament since 1999, but have never reached the super-regional round.

Kentucky is 7-2 all-time against Miami, which along with Notre Dame was one of the top three leading vote-getters among the “others receiving votes” in the latest coaches poll (Georgia was ahead of both). Both losses were part of a doubleheader played in 1997, UK’s first season of play. The Redhawks are 3-8 in 11 NCAA Tournament games across four separate events; they defeated Notre Dame, 3-2, to kick off their last appearance in 2016.

The hitters

Wildcats catcher Kayla Kowalik leads the way, but several big bats will be swinging in Lexington.

Kowalik was one of the top 10 finalists for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year but did not make the final-three cut. She leads the country with a .505 batting average and is one of only seven Power Five players hitting .450 or better. One of the others is Notre Dame outfielder Abby Sweet, who’s batting .463 (12th nationally) and was a top-25 finalist for Player of the Year. Fighting Irish junior Emma Clark, also an outfielder, brings a big bat, too; her .406 average ranks 78th in the country.

Miami has a top-25 batter, as well: Allie Cummins, a junior infeilder, hits .441 and is tied for 16th in the country with 17 home runs. Teammate Karli Spaid bats .416 and last week was among the 15 finalists named for the Freshman of the Year award handed out by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (which is based out of Louisville). Spaid matched Kentucky slugger Erin Coffel, a freshman, with 16 home runs this season, tied for 29th in the nation.

Collectively, Miami is the best-hitting bunch with a .345 average, good for fifth in the country. In eight games against Power Five foes, however, the Redhawks hit .242 (51 of 210) and were 2-6 (the wins coming against Louisville and Tennessee).

UK ranks 11th in hitting (.329) and led the SEC in that category. Notre Dame is 36th (.305) and Northwestern sits 71st overall (.288). Skyler Shellmyer leads Northwestern with a .362 mark and is one of two Wildcats (Jordyn Rudd) with 50 hits this season.

The pitchers

All four teams boast one pitcher who has started at least 20 games. Notre Dame is the only one with two; Payton Tidd (2.16 ERA, 21 starts) and Alexis Holloway (2.66, 20 starts), who’ve combined to go 28-12 in the circle. Tidd has tossed 11 more innings but Holloway has rung up more batters (105 to 78).

Kentucky will see pitches from Danielle Williams on Friday. The Northwestern junior has thrown 176 strikeouts, tied for 40th in the country, and boasts a 2.15 ERA and a 16-6 record in 22 starts. Opponents hit .199 against her this year, the second-best average among pitchers in Lexington this weekend after Miami star Courtney Vierstra, against whom opponents have hit .155. Vierstra ranks eighth in the country with 261 strikeouts.

Autumn Humes should be in the circle for Kentucky. She leads the Wildcats with 26 starts, going 20-7 to date, and has a 2.28 ERA with 139 strikeouts. Opponents are batting .234 against her this season, and Kentucky’s arms collectively have kept batters to a .246 average in 2021.

The rest

▪ Northwestern is 29-15, all of those games coming against Big Ten teams and in regular-season play (the conference did not host a postseason tournament this season). The Wildcats’ last non-conference game was a 14-3 win over Oakland played as part of the Louisville Invitational on March 8, 2020. They survived a middling finish — they were 11-13 from April 2-May 8 before taking three of four from Nebraska to close the year — to qualify for their third straight NCAA Tournament.

▪ Notre Dame’s most significant non-conference result was against Alabama, a 10-0 loss. The Fighting Irish had won 14 straight games before dropping a 4-1 decision to Virginia Tech in their Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament opener.

▪ Miami has the most wins (46) and third-fewest losses (eight) of any team in this year’s field. Only top-seeded Oklahoma (45-2) and Clemson have lost less than the Redhawks, who’ve won 11 straight and went 36-2 against Mid-American Conference foes.

▪ Seven of the 16 regionals will be played at SEC schools. In addition to Alabama and Kentucky, Florida (No. 4 overall seed), Arkansas (No. 6), LSU (No. 7 ), Missouri (No. 8) and Tennessee (No. 9) will look to survive as region hosts.

▪ Every school in the SEC except Vanderbilt plays softball, and only South Carolina failed to make this year’s NCAA Tournament. That ended a streak of three straight tournaments in which every league school qualified.

▪ Former Ryle High School star Maclai Branson is a junior at Miami. She’s hit .280 in 50 at-bats this season and has played in 29 games.

Lexington Regional

At UK’s John Cropp Stadium

Friday

Game 1: Northwestern vs. Kentucky, Noon (ESPN2)

Game 2: Notre Dame vs. Miami (Ohio), 2:30 p.m. (ESPN3)

Saturday

Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, Noon

Game 4: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 2:30 p.m.

Game 5: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 5 p.m.

Sunday

Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5, Noon

Game 7: If necessary, 2:30 p.m.