Kentucky

SEC softball power rankings: Missouri, Kentucky put everyone on notice with early upsets

Published

2 years ago

February 12, 2024

SEC softball power rankings: Missouri, Kentucky put everyone on notice with early upsets

The SEC showed its dominance in softball to start the season, only logging five losses as a conference in the first week of games.

Only three teams played ranked competition, though, and those three teams are sitting at the top the rankings this week. Some SEC teams challenge themselves early in the season, like the four heading to Clearwater, Florida, this week for a gauntlet of an invitational. Others prefer to get their battle testing in conference play. To each their own.

Here’s how SEC softball teams stack up in our power rankings after the first week of action:

1. Tennessee

Destiny Rodriguez only got one at bat Friday, but it was all she needed to become the hero in Tennessee’s 3-2 win over No. 22 Baylor. Rodriguez pinch hit with two outs and sent a two-run homer over the centerfield wall – talk about guts. The Lady Vols have her to thank for their undefeated start.

Last week: 1

Record: 3-0

RECORD CHASING: Kiki Milloy ties Tennessee softball career home run record with No. 57

2. Missouri

This is my mea culpa to the Tigers – I wasn’t familiar with your game. Missouri put the country on notice in its season-opening win over No. 13 Utah, and it closed out the week in Clearwater with an upset over No. 5 Clemson. The Tigers do not care about your preseason rankings.

Last week: 12

Record: 5-0

3. Kentucky

Kentucky would have been No. 2 if not for a narrow loss to No. 24 San Diego State. The Wildcats handed No. 3 Stanford two losses to lead the SEC’s efforts to end Pac-12 softball a few months early. Rutgers transfer Jaden Vickers is the real deal in the circle and Stephanie Schoonover looks ready for a comeback season after an injury derailed her junior campaign.

Last week: 9

Record: 4-1

4. Georgia

The Bulldogs are off to an undefeated start, but they also beat up on unranked teams at home. Hopefully the cupcake opening weekend prepared Georgia for the real competition in Clearwater coming up next.

Last week: 2

Record: 5-0

5. LSU

LSU’s pitching staff didn’t give up a single run in its opening week. It’s an impressive feat, but I’m not going to pretend to be impressed by the competition. Luckily, the Tigers are also going to Clearwater to face some real competition so we can see what these pitchers are made of.

Last week: 3

Record: 5-0

6. Alabama

Kayla Beaver stole the show in her debut for the Crimson Tide, throwing a no-hitter against Villanova. The transfer pitcher from Central Arkansas threw 21 strikeouts over 14 innings the opening week, but we’ll see how she holds up against tougher competition. Luckily for Alabama, that won’t happen until SEC play starts with the abysmal nonconference slate it has before then.

Last week: 4

Record: 5-0

7. South Carolina

The Gamecocks have the pitching, but boy do they need to figure out their hitting. Of the seven batters who saw 10 or more at bats last week, only two hit above .275. South Carolina needs its lineup to get deeper if it wants to compete in the SEC.

Last week: 8

Record: 5-0

8. Florida

The Gators’ freshmen pitchers impressed in their first week with three one-hitters and Olivia Miller tossing the first perfect game by a freshman in program history. Florida dropped one, but it just might have the pitching to terrorize the SEC.

Last week: 5

Record: 4-1

9. Arkansas

Arkansas barely escaped with one win against its two Power Five opponents. The Razorbacks went 1-1 against unranked Big Ten teams, so they’re not exactly inspiring confidence right now.

Last week: 7

Record: 4-1

10. Texas A&M

Four of the Aggies’ opening week wins were run-rule wins, but you can probably guess why. We’ll see what Texas A&M is really made of when it leaves home and plays some real west coast competition this week.

Last week: 10

Record: 4-0

11. Auburn

Auburn’s opening week was a strange one. It was ended two games early by weather conditions, but not before the Tigers’ second game against Virginia Tech ended in a 5-5 tie as the Hokies’ offense started heating up. Auburn is probably just grateful it didn’t add a second early loss to the record.

Last week: 6

Record: 1-1-1

12. Mississippi State

With the tough nonconference schedule ahead of them, this might be the only time the Bulldogs rise in the power rankings. Enjoy this one, Starkville.

Last week: 13

Record: 4-0

13. Ole Miss

The Rebels were welcomed to paradise by BYU, which took advantage of their errors to log a five-run first inning en route to a 7-4 win. Ole Miss recovered with four wins in Hawaii, but it started off the season on the wrong foot.

Last week: 11

Record: 4-1

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Kentucky

Louisville fans chanted ‘Beat UK!’ ahead of Tuesday’s rivalry matchup with Kentucky

Published

5 hours ago

November 7, 2025

Press Room

Louisville fans chanted ‘Beat UK!’ ahead of Tuesday’s rivalry matchup with Kentucky

Kentucky is getting set to face the Valparaiso Beacons on Friday night inside Rupp Arena, but their next opponent has shifted their full attention on them. Louisville just wrapped up their blowout 104-70 win over Jackson State, and now, are already starting to take shots at the Wildcats. After the game, one of their players, Kasean Pryor, who made his debut for the Cardinals on Thursday, took a shot at Kentucky in the postgame press conference, but the fans also had something to say during the game.

As the clock winded down in Louisville’s blowout win in the Yum! Center, Cardinal fans began chanting “Beat UK! Beat UK! Beat UK!” as the time ran out and all eyes shifted towards their big game against Kentucky on Tuesday. The players are hungry, but their fanbase is starving for a win over the Wildcats, as Louisville has beaten Kentucky just three times since John Calipari’s first season at Kentucky in 2009-10.

Louisville fans are chanting “Beat UK” pic.twitter.com/WKQj7GHHA7
— Rare Rookies #BBN (@rarerookies) November 7, 2025

When new coaches took over at both programs, Louisville fans were very confident once again last season, but Mark Pope was victorious in his first game as a coach in the rivalry. Heading into year two of the new eras, Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey has the Cards ranked #11 in the country with an explosive offense, ranked top 3 on KenPom. Mark Pope has his Wildcats #9 in the country as they work towards #9, and his squad is a top 3 defense in the country right now, also according to KenPom. As Kentucky gets Jaland Lowe back in the rotation and acclimated with getting the offensive flow back, Friday will be important to see a good showing on that side of the ball before facing Louisville.

Anyway, it’s like clockwork with Louisville fans, as every year when this game gets closer and closer, they become very desperate for a win, and based on history, things have not gone well for the Cardinals in this rivalry. Pat Kelsey has a really good squad this season at Louisville, but Mark Pope’s is as good, if not better, and we’ll see how Kentucky’s offensive flow looks on Friday before facing Louisville, because that will be important in the fringe top-10 matchup on the road.

Louisville fans are eager to see their team take down the WIldcats, something that has been a rare feat for them to see over the years in the in-state rivalry. They’re wasting no time talking smack with how little they’ve had to gloat about in this rivalry, but Kelsey’s #11 ranked squad has them excited. Kentucky will be looking for yet another win in the rivalry column on Tuesday in the Yum! Center.

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Kentucky

Northern Kentucky man among 3 pilots killed in Louisville UPS plane crash

Published

22 hours ago

November 6, 2025

Press Room

Northern Kentucky man among 3 pilots killed in Louisville UPS plane crash

The death toll for the UPS cargo plane crash, as of the evening on Nov. 6, has reached 13 people, one of whom was a pilot who lived in Northern Kentucky.

Richard Wartenberg had been living in Independence since 2005, public records indicated. According to UPS, he was the captain of Flight 2976, which was bound for Honolulu but crashed shortly past the runway of Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Nov. 4. This made it the deadliest plane crash in the history of UPS Airlines.

Wartenberg, 58, appeared to be a car enthusiast, A 2022 article from the Bent Pylon, a publication of the Porsche Club of America, noted that he was a member of the Ohio Valley Region chapter. At the time the article was published, Wartenberg had been a member of the club for 20 years, which had nearly 2,000 members.

The Courier-Journal reported that the death toll includes two other pilots. Lee Truitt served as first officer, or second-in-command of the flight. Dana Diamond was the flight’s international relief officer.

In addition to the 13 deaths, nine others remain missing and unaccounted for.

This story may be updated.

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Kentucky

Officials scour charred site of Kentucky UPS plane crash for victims and answers

Published

2 days ago

November 6, 2025

Press Room

Officials scour charred site of Kentucky UPS plane crash for victims and answers

The ATC tower is seen while smoke rises from the crash site of UPS Flight 2796 near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Louisville, Ky.

Jon Cherry/AP

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The grim task of finding victims from the firestorm that followed the crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky, entered a third day Thursday as investigators gather information to determine why the aircraft caught fire and lost an engine on takeoff.

The inferno consumed the enormous plane and spread to nearby businesses, killing at least 12 people, including a child, and leaving little hope of finding survivors in the charred area of the crash at UPS Worldport, the company’s global aviation hub.

The plane with three people aboard had been cleared for takeoff Tuesday when a large fire developed in the left wing, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. But determining why it caught fire and the engine fell off could take investigators more than a year.

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The plane gained enough altitude to clear the fence at the end of the runway before crashing just outside Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Inman said. The cockpit voice recorder and data recorder have since been recovered, and the engine was discovered on the airfield, he said.

The crash and explosion had a devastating ripple effect, striking and causing smaller blasts at Kentucky Petroleum Recycling and hitting an auto salvage yard. The child who was killed was with a parent at the salvage yard, according to Gov. Andy Beshear.

Some people who heard the boom, saw the smoke and smelled burning fuel were still stunned a day later.

Stooges Bar and Grill bartender Kyla Kenady said lights suddenly flickered as she took a beer to a customer on the patio.

“I saw a plane in the sky coming down over top of our volleyball courts in flames,” she said. “In that moment, I panicked. I turned around, ran through the bar screaming, telling everyone that a plane was crashing.”

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The governor predicted that that death toll would rise, saying authorities were looking for a “handful of other people” but “we do not expect to find anyone else alive.”

University of Louisville Hospital said two people were in critical condition in the burn unit. Eighteen people were treated and discharged at that hospital or other health care centers.

The airport is 7 miles (11 kilometers) from downtown Louisville, close to the Indiana state line, residential areas, a water park and museums. The airport resumed operations on Wednesday, with at least one runway open.

The status of the three UPS crew members aboard the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, made in 1991, was still unknown, according to Beshear. It was not clear if they were being counted among the dead.

UPS said it was “terribly saddened.”

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The Louisville package handling facility is the company’s largest. The hub employs more than 20,000 people in the region, handles 300 flights daily and sorts more than 400,000 packages an hour.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, said a number of things could have caused the fire as the UPS plane was rolling down the runway.

“It could have been the engine partially coming off and ripping out fuel lines. Or it could have been a fuel leak igniting and then burning the engine off,” Guzzetti said.

The crash bears a lot of similarities to one in 1979 when the left engine fell off an American Airlines jet as it was departing Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, killing 273 people, he said.

Guzzetti said that jet and the UPS plane were equipped with the same General Electric engines and both planes underwent heavy maintenance in the month before they crashed. The NTSB blamed the Chicago crash on improper maintenance. The 1979 crash involved a DC-10, but the MD-11 UPS plane is based on the DC-10.

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Flight records show the UPS plane was on the ground in San Antonio from Sept. 3 to Oct. 18, but it was unclear what maintenance was performed and if it had any impact on the crash.

Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Jonathan Mattise and Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.

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