By Leslie Hobbs

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UK softball spent nearly all of February playing challenging games on the road, but rose to the occasion, finishing the month with an 11-3 record.

The Cats took down two Top 10 teams in No. 10 Arizona and No. 5 Florida State.

UK senior catcher Griffin Joiner was pleased the team had the chance to face tough competition this early in the season and was excited to see many Top 25 matchups at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic last weekend.

“Whether it was a game we were playing in or just a game beside us, it was a really neat experience,” Joiner said.

The Cats suffered a 7-3 loss to No. 3 Oklahoma, the 2013 Women’s College World Series winner and 2014 WCWS participant, on Saturday.

Despite the loss, Joiner said she was glad to be back playing on the dirt.

“It’s been exciting for me to be able to catch behind the plate and see every pitcher do well,” Joiner added.

UK’s pitching staff has been fortunate enough to rotate several pitchers, giving each player many innings of work. Junior right-hander Kelsey Nunley was named the Co-Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Week earlier this season and is only the second pitcher in school history to earn the award multiple times.

Nunley’s career-earned run average of 1.96 is ranked first in program history and her .211 career-opponent batting average is second all-time. Nunley was also named to the Top 50 watch list for the National Player of the Year award.

Sophomore left-hander Meagan Prince says one of her personal goals for this season is to help out the pitching staff, especially Nunley, who she said carried the team last year.

“I need to get my job done in the bullpen to help out Kelsey and the team so we can hopefully make it further in the WCWS,” Prince said. “I think we’ve done well so far, but we need to continue working and improving on what we have.”

Prince made her career debut as a starter in the season opener, finishing with 11 strikeouts against Florida A&M.

Head coach Rachel Lawson said she was satisfied with the start of the season and thinks the team has picked up where they left off last year.

“We’re getting a great contribution throughout the entire lineup,” Lawson said.

Lawson mentioned the team is still working to get better so that it may travel to Oklahoma City at the season’s end.

“We’re getting ready to go through a tough conference schedule and face the best teams in the country,” Joiner said. “There’s going to be ups and downs, but we’re going to have to fight through that so that by the time we make it to postseason, we are able to reach our ultimate goal.”

The 2015 Frost Classic at Chattanooga, Tenn., UK’s next scheduled stretch of games, was canceled due to snow in the area. No information has been released regarding possible rescheduling of the five games the Cats were slated to play at Jim Frost Stadium.

UK will continue its road stretch when it faces Texas A&M at College Station, Texas, on March 6.