The University of Louisville softball team will face Kentucky for the second time this season in the Battle of the Bluegrass, with first pitch scheduled for April 22 at Ulmer Stadium. The game is set to begin at 6 p.m. and will be streamed on ACCNX.
This matchup comes as Louisville carries momentum from a recent three-game sweep over Pittsburgh, where each victory was secured in five-inning run-rule fashion. Several players achieved notable milestones during that series. Chelsea Mack set a new school record for most stolen bases in a single season with 37, ranking her second nationally and first in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Jordan Williams extended her hitting streak to 19 games, taking over first place in program history, while Madison Pickens reached the top spot on Louisville’s single-season runs batted in leaderboard with a total of 62 RBIs after strong performances last weekend. Easton Lotus also broke a school record by reaching base safely in 40 consecutive games.
Louisville and Kentucky previously met earlier this season, with Louisville earning an extra-innings win by scoring five unanswered runs to secure an 8-7 victory—the team’s first win over Kentucky since 2019 and its first road win against them since 2015.
Chelsea Mack leads Louisville offensively with a .453 batting average, collecting 72 hits and scoring 54 runs so far this season. Madison Pickens follows closely behind with a .439 average and has driven in more than sixty runs. Bri Despines (.392) and Camryn Lookadoo (.402) are also among team leaders; Lookadoo leads all players with nineteen doubles. As a group, Louisville leads its conference both in stolen bases (105) and triples (25), while ranking second overall for batting average (.359) through forty-four games.
On the mound, Anna Wise holds a team-best earned run average of 2.75 across sixty-one innings pitched, while Alyssa Zabala leads the staff with eighty-five strikeouts and twelve wins through more than one hundred innings pitched.
Kentucky enters Wednesday’s contest holding an even record at twenty-five wins and twenty-five losses overall but only one Southeastern Conference victory this year. The Wildcats are led by Karissa Hamilton (.325 average), Allie Blum (.377), Carly Sleeman (thirteen home runs), and Peyton Plotts (nine home runs). Their pitching staff is anchored by Sarah Haendiges—who has recorded more than one hundred strikeouts—and Hailey Nutter.
