SOUTH BEND, Ind. – For four years, Rachel Lawson has kept a batting-practice secret.When Griffin Joiner is up and Lawson wants her star senior catcher to make an out, Lawson knows just what to do.”Every time I want Griffin to get out, I call a timeout and I freeze her and then she gets so fidgety and ends up popping up,” Lawson said.Only with a third Super Regional trip in a row on the line would Lawson give up the secret.Leading 3-2 with two outs in the top of the seventh inning of Sunday’s Regional final, Notre Dame tried the trick, calling timeout with Joiner ahead 2-0 in the count. Right away, Lawson ran from her customary spot just outside the Kentucky dugout to finally spill the beans to Joiner.”I told her what the trick was,” Lawson said. “Now that she’s a senior, I don’t have to keep it (a secret).”Facing one of the biggest moments of her illustrious career, Joiner got just what she needed from the brief visit. A few pitches later, she laced a full-count single into the gap in right-center field. Christian Stokes scored from second and Nikki Sagermann from first on a Fighting Irish throwing error, a rally fellow senior Kara Howard sparked with a leadoff single.”Obviously it helped that she called timeout and told me they were just trying to get in my head,” Joiner said. “Because she does that to me all the time. So I kind of felt comfortable that she had told me that.”That Joiner could feel comfortable in that situation speaks to her poise. “I just looked at the scoreboard it was full count, top of the seventh,” Joiner said. “That’s really what you work for and what you live for.”It was a moment, however, that seemed unlikely to come for Joiner as recently as a few days ago.UK entered the NCAA Tournament on a seven-game losing streak, including three walk-off losses in a row to Tennessee in the final two games of the regular-season and the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. Now, the Wildcats are on a remarkably well-timed three-game winning streak after sweeping through the South Bend Regional.”It definitely says that we’re tough,” Lawson said. “I think the other thing it says is we have a really short memory, which in situations like this is key. So we don’t really carry things from game to game. I think it says a lot about our character.”Joiner isn’t so worried about what the win says about her team, at least not right now. She’s only thinking about her college career lasting at least one more week.”It’s definitely a good feeling knowing that we get to go out and we get to play another game,” Joiner said. “That’s really all we’re doing right now, is just fighting for another game.”The next game will be next weekend, as UK heads to Gainesville, Fla., for a Super Regional showdown with No. 1 overall seed Florida. Lawson will almost certainly turn to Kelsey Nunley against the Gators. Why wouldn’t she after Nunley held a Notre Dame team that scored 29 runs in two run-rule wins on Saturday to just three runs on seven hits?”Notre Dame is a great offensive team,” Lawson said. “They have so many different weapons and so many different tools. I really think that Nunley did a great job on the mound keeping them off balance and keeping the number of runners on base to a minimum.”Nunley couldn’t keep Notre Dame off the bases in the seventh inning as she tried to protect the lead Joiner gave UK, as Jenna Simon singled, stole second and moved to third on a grounder. But facing Notre Dame’s two best power hitters in Emilee Koerner and Katey Haus, Nunley coaxed a pair of pop ups to shortstop.”We just tried to keep them off balance like we always do,” Nunley said. “Once again, I thought Coach called another good game and it went well. It worked out. It was a little shaky at times, but in the end Griffin came up and was a stud.”That’s no secret.”It was fitting because we’ve been doing this for so long together that we were either going to go down together or win together,” Lawson said. “So I thought it was fitting for the program.”

Weird group, but when it’s postseason time, they know how to WIN! #RoadtoWCWS #BBN #hittenkittens pic.twitter.com/ydRiknVKE3

— UK Softball (@UKsoftball) May 17, 2015