MOREHEAD, Ky. (WKYT) – The STEM field is a predominantly male-dominated area, but for one space camp program, they’re working to change that.

Over the last week, several high school girls from across the Commonwealth and beyond have been getting a glimpse of what its like to work in the aerospace industry.

“I was just really excited, like wow, I can learn all of this stuff in two weeks and have all of this fun and meet other girls who are interested in this stuff like me,” said high schooler Ruby Korman.

This is all thanks to the SpaceTrek Program, which is a space systems program for young women that has been happening in Morehead.

“Girls in SpaceTrek get exposure to electricity and electronics and they develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities to understand space craft subsystems,” said the program’s director, Jennifer Carter.

Through the two-week-long program, the girls get to do a bunch of hands-on activities, like launching their own satellite-like device called a cricket sat.

The cricket sat is sent into the sky collecting data on the temperature.

“The primary takeaway for girls participating in SpaceTrek is that they see a tangible college and career pathway in aerospace,” Carter added.

That’s exactly what happened for the program’s co-instructor Chloe Hart.

“Throughout my time at SpaceTrek, I just fell in love with space systems engineering and ground station communications specifically, and that’s when I decided to change my career path and go into space systems engineering,” Hart said.

And beyond the group bonding activities and guest speakers, like WKYT’s own meteorologist Alexa Minton, girls get to see that there is space for them in this industry.

“My team created SpaceTrek to be what we needed when we were young teenagers. We needed this academic challenge to show ourselves what we are truly capable of doing,” Carter said.

The program will wrap up Saturday, June 22.

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Known for its car-crash style, Kentucky baseball boasts one of the most unique offensive units in the country this season. They’ve proven to be an issue for opposing infields all season long.

That trend has continued in Omaha as the bunting, base-stealing Bat ‘Cats showed that they’re more than just a flashy offense. Kentucky went on to score four of its five runs against NC State in Saturday’s College World Series opener off three home runs en route to a 5-4 victory in extra innings.

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“That’s why I started just calling our offense a whatever-it-takes type offense because our guys are so talented,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said after the win. “… When we get production up and down our lineup, that’s us at our best, and we can do it in all different ways. And you know what? There’s a lot of coaching that goes into that. But for the players to be able to execute all those different things, we have to be very intentional.”

Even when his players don’t record the hits they want at the plate, Mingione also gauges his player’s performances in terms of how good was the total at-bat. Ryan Waldschmidt went 0 for 4 at the plate with a walk, but Mingione graded him 3 for 5 in quality. The same goes for Emilien Petri, who was graded 5 for 5 quality at-bats despite going 1 for 3 with two walks on the stat sheet.

Kentucky got about as quality of an at-bat as it gets in the 10th inning from Mitchell Daly, whose solo home run ended up being the difference in the game as UK walked it off to win their first CWS game in program history. He was 2 for 5 at the plate and wasn’t not struck out in any of his at-bats.

“The attention to detail by the players, their focus, their execution. It’s definitely not easy, but boy can they execute at a high level,” Mingione continued. “And I just want to make sure that everybody knows it’s not all about bunting. The whatever-it-takes type of offense, please, because bunting is a small piece to it, but to your point, we can hit homers too.”

Kentucky will look to continue this trend as they advance to take on SEC foe Texas A&M in the winner’s bracket of the College World Series with a shot at the national semifinal on the line. The first pitch is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. ET live on ESPN.

OAK GROVE, Ky. (WSMV) – A man died after he drove away from a safety check point and crashed his car in a field, according to the Kentucky State Police (KSP).

On Saturday, at about 11:20 p.m., troopers were conducting a traffic safety checkpoint on KY 115 in Oak Grove.

Roderick Crossley, 29, of Hopkinsville approached the checkpoint. Crossley failed to provide his driver’s license and drove away from the checkpoint at a high rate of speed, officials said.

Troopers later found Crossley and his vehicle wrecked in a field just north of Interstate 24.

Officials said the preliminary investigation revealed that Crossley lost control of the car on KY 115 after traveling across the Interstate 24 overpass.

Crossley’s car left the west side of the roadway and overturned several times.

Crossley was ejected from the car during the crash, the KSP said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

KSP said the crash is an ongoing investigation.

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