Kentucky softball finished its 16-game road trip, starting the season, and returned home with a 12-4 record.
McKenzie Oslanzi and Sarah Heandiges represented Kentucky on the mound with strong starts for the Wildcats early.
Oslanzi put up a 1.80 ERA in 23.1 innings pitched in her eight appearances and four starts, where she also recorded 13 strikeouts.
Heandiges also started four of her seven appearances, where she went 28.0 innings with a 2.75 ERA and 31 strikeouts, but 11 walks and three wild pitches.
However, freshman Hailey Nutter stole the show and made her case as the next dominant pitcher for Kentucky softball.
In her 32.2 innings of work, she started six games of eight appearances, allowing six walks and four extra-base hits, none of which were home runs.
She tallied a 1.71 ERA and 47 strikeouts, which rank tied for 29th in the nation, alongside her four complete games, all of which were shutouts, which is first in college softball.
Nutter’s top performances came against the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Indiana State Sycamores, where she tallied a no-hitter in both games.
She earned SEC Freshman of the Week after her first no-hitter in the final game of the San Diego State Season Kickoff, tallying 14 strikeouts and retiring all 21 batters in the 8-0 win.
Batters facing Nutter have been nearly unhittable as they’ve been hitting .153, cruising to a 6-1 record, tied for eighth in the country.
She is quickly emerging as one of the SEC and NCAA’s most prominent freshman pitchers and will potentially be on every watchlist for freshman pitcher of the year from her impressive stat lines.
Helping Nutter and the rest of the pitching staff is the run support they received on the offensive side.
As a team, the Wildcats’ bats are hitting a combined .335 average with 52 extra-base hits and 20 home runs.
Alongside five Wildcats batting over .300, with Karissa Hamilton and Allie Blum both batting over .400, Carly Sleeman and Peyton Plotts also played big roles, not far behind.
Plotts, batting .308, has done a great job at consistently putting the ball in play with a slugging percentage of .712 and with a total OPS of 1.069, while only Hamilton and Blum also maintain an OPS over 1.000.
Plotts is also leading the team with five home runs, tallying 12 RBIs.
Hamilton and Blum have truly led this team throughout the first 16 games, ranking among the league leaders in several categories.
Blum with a 1.133 OPS, 13 RBIs, and Hamilton with a 1.243 OPS while leading the team in RBIs with 16, slugging percentage of .726, extra-base hits with 11, total hits with 23 and batting average at .426.
These two have accounted for several big moments already, as they played a big role in the upset win over No. 13 Stanford.
Blum went 2-for-4 and Hamilton 3-for-4, with four RBIs, a home run and a triple shy of the cycle.
Hamilton would get that cycle a couple of weeks later in last Friday’s 11-0 win over Northern Illinois.
Blum looks to bring her clutch moments back to the homestand as she delivered a three-run triple to secure a 4-2 victory over Murray State last week.
The pop and consistency of the bats of this Kentucky duo provide opportunities for other players in the lineup to come up in big moments to win big games in dramatic fashion.
Maddy Anson hit two home runs, which secured the weekend sweep in the Blues City Classic and a win over Memphis.
Overall, it’s been a group effort from the Wildcats, from big wins out west in California to a 6-0 finish to end the road trip.
