Kentucky teammates mobbed Rene Abernathy, right, after her seventh-inning, three-run homer. (Photo by Vicky Graff)
BLACKSBURG, Va. —No way Kentucky was going to win this game.
Kentucky’s best pitcher all season, Tatum Spangler, gave up a first-inning grand slam home run to host Virginia Tech without getting an out. The Kentucky offense had early scoring chances but went scoreless for five innings.
Even after a solo home run by freshman Taylor Ebbs in the sixth, Kentucky still trailed 4-1 going to the seventh inning and the Hokies — the NCAA Tournament No. 3 overall seed — brought in ace Keely Rochard, a fifth-year senior with 312 strikeouts in 186 innings and a 24-3 record.
But coach Rachel Lawson’s Comeback Cats pulled off the miracle and won 5-4 in the Blacksburg Regional winner’s bracket final and now need one win today to reach a Super Regional again.
Lawson admitted it was “heartbreaking” when Tech hit the grand slam homer but freshman pitcher Alexia Lacatena kept the Hokies, who beat UK in February, scoreless the rest of the way to set up the dramatic seventh inning rally.
Vanessa Newby and Kayla Kowalik started the seventh with singles to bring in Rochard. Erin Coffel delivered a RBI single. That set the stage for senior Renee Abernathy, who barely missed a home run in the third inning. Abernathy mashed a pitch from Rochard over the wall to give UK the stunning win.
Abernathy is a reluctant hero.
“You have to give props to Vanessa, Kayla and Erin for getting on base before me because that’s not possible without them. They gave me the confidence and we feed off each other. We are never out of the fight. We know that. I was just trying to put the ball in play hard,” Abernathy, who now has 15 home runs and 51 RBI’s, said.
She had “no clue” about what type of pitch she hit and didn’t even see the ball go over the fence because she said she knew it was a home run as soon as she hit it.
“Having my teammates celebrate me like that is awesome, too. It was just an amazing feeling, and I am glad to be able to play again tomorrow,” Abernathy said.
“We are never out of it, we know that. We have come back in the seventh before. We’ve come back from larger deficits than that all year. We know we’re never out of it.”
Lacatena pitched six innings and gave up only two hits and two walks. She struck out four.
“Whatever pitch I was going to get, I knew that I had to visualize what I had to do with my body and what I wanted the pitch to do,” Lacatena, who pitched for the Italian Olympic team, said. “It didn’t really matter what pitch was going to be called. I just knew that I had to visualize, step back, and trust my stuff, and let it fly.”
She was not overwhelmed with being put into the game so early and UK was already down 4-0.
“I have so much faith and trust in my team. I know that it doesn’t matter who, someone in our lineup can make something happen. We were right there, close the entire game, so I knew eventually it was going to bust open.”
And bust open it did.
One Response
Shout out to the UK tennis team also. Go cats!!