Ebbs’ towering bombs aid Kentucky in NCAA Regional opening win

EVANSTON, Ill. – Taylor Ebbs hit two home runs, drove in five runs and had three hits Friday afternoon as the Kentucky Softball team advanced past Miami University 9-1 in six innings. With the win, Kentucky will play in Saturday afternoon’s winner’s bracket game at 1 p.m. ET/Noon CT against the winner of Northwestern vs. Eastern Illinois.

Erin Coffel hit a ball over the roof of the Welsh-Ryan Arena, Northwestern’s basketball arena over left field, and that drove in three more runs for the Wildcats in the sixth, with Grace Lorsung’s solo homer walking the game off and inducing the run rule for the second-straight year over the RedHawks.

Coffel becomes the seventh player all-time to hit a fair ball over the roof of Welsh-Ryan Arena according to Northwestern’s website, and it becomes the 12th home run of all-time hit over the roof.

Miami with the loss falls into the loser’s bracket and will play the loser of the Northwestern/Eastern Illinois game at 3:30 p.m. ET. Television assignments for Saturday’s games will be announced Friday evening by ESPN.

In the circle, Stephanie Schoonover pitched the first three innings, allowing just one run on two hits with a walk and three strikeouts. Kennedy Sullivan was the winning pitcher in the game, as she threw the final three innings of the game, without surrendering a hit and striking out three. With the result, Sullivan improves to 5-5 on the year. Miami’s Brianna Pratt took the loss and is now 30-11 on the season.

Kentucky pitchers needed just 87 pitches in the game to retire the RedHawks.