Softballs may have looked like beach balls for Arkansas redshirt junior Rylin Hedgecock on Saturday evening in Lexington, Ky.
The designated player launched home runs in each of her first three at-bats to help No. 11 Arkansas cap a doubleheader sweep with a 14-6 victory over No. 20 Kentucky in 5 innings.
“I definitely feel more relaxed when I'm locked in,” Hedgecock said, “and it kind of does make the ball look bigger whenever it comes in there.”
Arkansas (34-12, 11-6 SEC) defeated the Wildcats 8-1 earlier in the day and notched its first series win at Kentucky since 2008.
“I was really, really pleased with how we competed today from the start to the finish,” Arkansas coach Courtney Deifel said. “Both games were very different, but our offense was dialed the entire time…. It’s always nice to win the series going into the last game.”
Hedgecock stole the show in the second game with her home runs. She hit a pair of 2-run home runs and a 3-run home run to tally 7 RBI.
Her 19 home runs are most in Division I. Hedgecock's third multi-home run game came on the heels of a 0-for-3 performance in the series opener.
“I feel like the first game I was allowing the pitcher to get ahead of me in counts, and I was rolling over pitches,” Hedgecock said. “And so in the second game I just tried to jump on the pitcher early, because normally earlier in the count is better to hit for me anyways. So I was just swinging earlier in the counts and letting the ball travel deeper so that I could put a better swing on it.”
The entire Arkansas lineup had at least one hit in Game 2, and the Razorbacks assembled a nine-run second inning to create separation after trailing 3-2.
“That's huge,” Deifel said. “I think we got production throughout. We know we have the hitters for it, and we've been clustered a lot in our offensive production. And today I just feel like we put it all together. When the ball showed up on the plate, we made them pay. We swung with intent.”
Ten of Arkansas’ 14 runs were scored via home runs. Freshman shortstop Atalyia Rijo hit a three-run homer to begin the second-inning onslaught. It was her third home run and first since a 12-0 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on March 3.
Freshman center fielder Reagan Johnson went a combined 7 for 9 at the plate during the doubleheader. She also robbed a home run from Kentucky (26-15-1, 7-10) in the second inning of Game 2 when she gloved a ball over the wall.
“She's fun, isn't she?” Deifel said. “She just had an incredible day…robbing the home run in that second game was so huge to get the momentum back.”
Freshman left-hander Robyn Herron entered in relief of Hannah Camenzind in the second inning and earned a win. She pitched 3 2/3 innings with 1 hit allowed and 4 strikeouts.
In the series opener, senior ace Chenise Delce pitched a complete game and limited the Wildcats to one run on six hits.
“I thought Chenise did what Chenise does,” Deifel said. “They’re a really tough offense, to the point where you don't ever feel like you have enough runs. You just never really feel like you have enough runs with Kentucky, the way they swing the bat. So I thought Chenise did a really great job of just keeping the offense contained.”
The game was tied 1-1 through 3 innings, but the Razorbacks blew things open with 6 runs between the fourth and sixth innings. Delce protected the lead to earn her 17th win.
Johnson (4 hits), Hannah Gammill (2), Lauren Camenzind (2) and Kacie Hoffmann (2) each had a multi-hit game in the opener.
The Razorbacks had 28 hits — 14 in each game — during the doubleheader.
Arkansas extended its SEC road win streak to 11 series.
Game 3 is scheduled to begin at noon Central on Sunday. The Razorbacks will look to earn their second three-game sweep in SEC play.