The No. 6 Tennessee Softball team demonstrated their dominance on Sunday afternoon as they swept No. 17 Kentucky with a decisive 15-1 victory in five innings at John Cropp Stadium. This marked the first time this season that Kentucky has been swept in a Southeastern Conference series.
With this result, Tennessee maintains its lead in the SEC with a two-game cushion, improving their record to 34-5 overall and 13-2 in the SEC. Meanwhile, Kentucky suffers its third consecutive loss for the first time this season, dropping their record to 25-13 overall and 7-8 in league play.
Kentucky will face off against Northern Kentucky on Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m. ET in Highland Heights, Kentucky. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.
Tennessee’s impressive offense generated 15 runs on 13 hits on Sunday, thanks in part to seven free passes issued by Kentucky’s pitching. The Lady Vols managed 10 two-strike RBIs and hit seven extra-base hits, including five home runs, with two apiece from Kiki Milloy and McKenna Gibson.
Kentucky’s sole run came in the fourth inning after a lead-off triple by Vanessa Nesby, who later scored on a Grace Lorsung sacrifice fly.
The key play of the game was a lead-off homer by Tennessee’s KiKi Milloy, while the key player for Kentucky was Vanessa Nesby, who led off the fourth inning with a triple and later scored on a sac fly.
The key stat for this game is three – this is the first time all season that UK has lost three games in a row.
Tennessee opened the scoring with three runs in the first inning, followed by a three-run home run from McKenna Gibson in the second. Gibson hit her second three-run homer in the fourth, with a subsequent sacrifice fly pushing Tennessee’s lead to 10-0. Kentucky managed to score one run in the bottom of the fourth, but Tennessee answered with five more runs on five hits in the fifth inning.
