CLEARWATER, Fla. – The University of Wisconsin softball team — coming off of a 4-1 weekend in Arizona that began their season — traveled down to Clearwater, Florida, to take on some of the best competition in the country on one of college softball’s biggest stages.
On the first day of action, UW took on two ranked SEC opponents in No. 4 University of Georgia and No. 18 University of Kentucky.
As the sun hit its peak in Clearwater on Thursday, the Badgers battled against the Bulldogs from Athens in front of a sold out crowd. Graduate student Tessa Magnanimo took the mound for UW — coming off of a complete game outing against Boise State University just a week ago.
It was a fast start for the high-powered offense, as true freshman Alivia Bark reached on an error to lead off the game — ending up on second base and in scoring position. Later on in the inning, junior Brooke Kuffel traded places with Bark to get the Badgers up 1-0.
Senior Ellie Hubbard found the barrel as well, launching a pull-side home run over the right-centerfield wall to put the Badgers up 4-0 on the No. 4 ranked team in the land.
Georgia had a response though, as they strung together two runs in the third on back-to-back doubles from Sara Mosley and Jayda Kearney. The Bulldogs tacked on another run in the fourth to cut the deficit to 4-3 after four innings of play.
UW maintained their one-run lead all the way into the seventh inning, as sophomore Shelby Jacobson kept the Bulldogs off balance for two clean frames in middle relief. Fellow pitcher Gabi Salo came on for the final frame, but could not silence Georgia’s offensive attack anymore.
A fielder’s choice tied the game up at 4-4. Salo and the Badgers secured the final out of the inning to extend the game after forcing a pop out to left fielder Molly Schlosser.
With an extra runner on second base, UW and the Bulldogs traded one run each in the eighth and ninth inning. But Georgia’s pitching stepped up, as a missed sacrifice squeeze allowed the No. 4 team in the land to force the lead runner into a pickle, and an eventual out.
Dallis Goodnight came up in the final inning with the bases loaded and barreled a single up the middle to give the Bulldogs a 7-6 victory in 10 innings.
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A couple hours later, UW was back on the diamond to take on a strong Kentucky team, who came off of a 12-10 victory earlier in the day against the University of North Carolina.
Catcher Emmy Wells — a Northern Iowa transfer and 2022 Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year — hit a three-run home run to jumpstart the Badgers’ offense in the first inning.
Unfortunately for UW, the offense went cold after getting out to a hot start. Karissa Hamilton’s two-run home run off of Salo was part of a two-inning burst where the Wildcats put up four unanswered runs to take the lead back.
The Badgers found some momentum in the top of the sixth, as pinch hitter Hilary Blomberg sent a single to the opposite field to drive in senior Peyton Bannon to shrink Kentucky’s lead to 6-5. Bannon scored two runs in the match—stealing two bases in the process.
UW threatened at the end as well, but just came up short. With runners on first and second, Kuffel—who had eight hits in five games in Arizona—grounded a ball to the shortstop, where a game-sealing double play was turned by the Wildcats to give them the 6-5 win.
The Badgers were competitive in each game Thursday, but couldn’t quite get over the hump against strong teams to pull out victories. They get a chance to bounce back Friday, as they take on No. 6 Oklahoma State University at 2:30 p.m. CT and the University of Central Florida at 7:00 p.m. CT. Both games will be televised on ESPN+ from Clearwater.
