The UK softball team closed out its opening weekend with a 10-2 win against New Mexico State after falling short in both games of their Saturday double-header by scores of 9-12 and 6-10.

The Cats had no cake walk in their first series of the season as they faced one of the best offensive teams in the country in NMSU. Kentucky gave up 12 runs in game one, which were the most given up since 20 against University of Alabama-Birmingham in March of 2012.

However, Kentucky put up a fight against the Aggies as they scored four runs in the seventh inning to cut the lead down to 12-9 after being down seven runs. Alex Martens homered to score three, and Abbey Cheek hit a solo home run.

Katie Reed was Kentucky’s unanimous game one player of the game as she doubled, homered, and batted for three RBI.

Game two of the series ended in a 10-6 loss for Kentucky. NMSU’s Victoria Castro hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to give the Aggies a 10-6 lead that the Cats couldn’t come back from.

Kentucky’s Bailey Vick was a big contributor at the plate for the Cats as she went 3-3 with three singles and two RBI’s.

The final game of the Cats’ opening weekend went much better than the first two as they walked away with a 10-2 win against the Aggies.

The Cats hit a whopping four home runs in Saturday’s game, two from junior Abbey Cheek, the third from catcher Jenny Schaper and one from Reed.

The turning point in game three of the series came in the fifth inning with Jenny Schaper’s homer, which gave the Cats a 5-2 lead. Their next five runs came from Katie Reed’s two-run homer in the seventh to put Kentucky up 7-2 and Abbey Cheek’s three-run bomb to leave the score at 10-2. All five runs in the seventh inning came from home runs.

The Cats will now make their way to San Diego where they will play their next five games, starting on Thursday, Feb 15, at 9 p.m. against San Diego State.