Prince’s Third No-Hitter, Ray’s Walk Off Highlight Shutout of NKU
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Junior lefty pitcher Meagan
Prince threw her third no-hitter of the season on Tuesday afternoon, guiding
the No. 12 Kentucky softball team to a shutout 9-0 win over the Northern
Kentucky Norse. Prince becomes the first player in Kentucky history to throw
three no-hitters in the same season. No pitcher had ever thrown more than one in
a season coming into 2016.
Prince’s no-hitter is the fifth for UK
pitching this season, which leads all teams in the Southeastern Conference.
With the win, Prince moves her perfect record on the season to 12-0 in her 14
appearances in the circle. Her 12 wins leads the Kentucky staff, and now sports
a new career-best 1.38 ERA this season.
Junior outfielder Breanne Ray capped off the
no-hitter in the bottom of the fifth with a pinch-hit walk-off two-run homer to
rightcenter field to give Kentucky its eighth and ninth runs of the game. The
home run was Ray’s first of the season, and seventh of her career. Ray came to
the plate with no outs in the bottom of the fifth inning and Brooklin Hinz
sitting on first and launched a first pitch over the wall in right.
Kentucky’s offense was clicking all day on
Wednesday at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington, depositing double-digit hits (11)
for the ninth time this season. Seven different batters had a hit for the
Wildcats, with four different players all recording two RBI. Seven different
players scored a run for UK in its first-ever meeting with NKU in softball.
With the win, Kentucky improves on its best
start to a season in program history, and now sits 26-4 overall (.867) and 5-1
in the SEC.
Kentucky caps off its five-game homestand on
Wednesday afternoon at John Cropp Stadium with a 5 p.m. ET affair with the
Murray State Racers. Wednesday’s game will be live on the SEC Network+ and the
WatchESPN app with Dave Baker, Carol Bruggeman and Dorian Craft calling the
action.
The Murray State Racers enter Wednesday’s
contest with a 10-13 overall record on the season, and a 1-2 record inside Ohio
Valley Conference action. The Racers are coming off a three-game conference
series over the weekend against SEMO, in which MSU won the Friday night game,
before losing the next two to drop the conference-opening series. Murray has
played two common opponents with the Wildcats so far, with a 1-3 record in
those four games played. Murray dropped two games to Indiana, which Kentucky
beat – and split with Evansville – whom Kentucky beat at the Frost Classic.
Key Stat
Three. Three is the key stat in Tuesday’s win,
as it marks the number of no-hitters that Meagan Prince has thrown this season
for UK. Prince is the first pitcher in Kentucky history to record multiple
no-hitters in the same season.
Key Play
Tuesday’s key play was Breanne Ray’s walk-off
home run in the bottom of the fifth inning. The homer was her first of the
season, and drove in Brooklin Hinz, who was on base thanks to a Norse fielding
error. Ray now has seven career home runs, with Tuesday’s coming as her
first-career walk-off shot.
Key Player
Meagan Prince was the key player in the game.
She improved to 12-0 on the season, striking out three Norse batters, and not
allowing a walk in the game. A Kentucky fielding error and a HBP is all that separated
Prince from a perfect game.
Run Recap
Katie Reed and Sylver Samuel led off the
bottom of the first inning with infield singles. An Abbey Cheek groundout advanced
the runners to second and third with one out. Brooklin Hinz then had an RBI
groundout to the right side to score Reed, and give UK the early edge. UK 1,
NKU 0
UK got its first two batter on base in the
second inning as well, via a walk from Nikki Sagermann and a single from
Rachael Metzger. Reed then singled up the middle with two outs to score
Sagermann and Metzger, but was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a
Norse fielding error to close the inning. Reed got her 14th and 15th
RBI of the season. UK 3, NKU 0
For the third consecutive inning, UK got two
on with no outs to begin the third. Sylver Samuel singled and Abbey Cheek
singled to start the inning. Samuel with her incredible speed scored on Cheek’s
single thanks to heads-up baserunning. Cheek then advanced to third on a passed
ball, came around to score on a Hinz SAC fly. UK 5, NKU 0
Kentucky would score four times in the bottom
of the fifth inning, as for the fourth time in five innings, the first two
batters reached base safely. A single by Samuel started the inning, and then
Cheek brought her home with a double to right field. Cheek scored UK’s seventh
run on an E6 by the Norse, and Hinz came around to tap the plate on Ray’s
walk-off homer. FINAL – No. 12 Kentucky 9, Northern Kentucky 0
For the latest on the Kentucky softball team, follow @UKSoftball on Twitter, Instagram
and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
