Prince Pitches UK to Confidence-Boosting Win

Facing the nation’s third-ranked team needing a win to even a weekend Southeastern Conference series, Kentucky turned to its ace.

The Wildcats’ ace – Meagan Prince – pitched like there wasn’t an ounce of weight on her shoulders.

“We had nothing to lose,” Prince said. “We had absolutely nothing to lose. So just go out there, play our game, play what we know we can do and just go for broke.”

Prince used that approach to stymie Florida and its patient, potent offense in a 5-1 victory on Saturday afternoon in front of a sold-out crowd of 1,617 that was a John Cropp Stadium record. The senior lefthander tossed a complete game to set up a series rubber match at 1 p.m. on Sunday between the No. 21 Cats (26-12, 6-8 SEC) and Gators (39-3, 14-2 SEC).

“It was just making sure I was executing the pitch that Coach called,” Prince said. “Every pitch that was called, signaled out to me, I just thought to myself, ‘OK, this is the pitch. Execute this pitch.’ That’s how we tried to go about the game.”

Prince allowed just two runs and three walks against a Florida offense that was averaging 6.5 runs and 4.8 walks per game coming in.

“I’m always confident giving the ball to Meagan,” head coach Rachel Lawson said. “Meagan has a lot of different pitches. She’s incredibly competitive. She has a good feel for the zone. She’s probably one of the best pitchers that I’ve ever been around.”

While Prince cruised, UK’s offense scratched across a run in the first inning when Katie Reed scored on an error. Reed was also in the middle of UK’s two-run rallies in the fifth and sixth innings with two more hits, the second driving in a pair of runs.

“Obviously she’s seeing the ball. She’s swinging the bat better and better,” Lawson said. “She’s getting more confident. She’s really working hard on her swing and doing some things.”

The victory snapped a 10-game winning streak for the Gators and, more importantly for the home-standing Cats, created some momentum. UK entered Saturday having lost six of its last seven in SEC play, dropping the Cats into a tie for eighth in the league.

“Anytime you can compete and go ahead and beat a team like Florida, it gives you a big confidence boost going into the rest of the SEC,” Lawson said. “We went through a rough patch and we’re slowly getting better and better and I think anytime that you can put a signature win on it, it really just validates all the hard work that our team has been putting in.”

Handing Florida just its third loss of the season – the previous two coming against Maryland and No. 7 Auburn – is a good reminder why UK remains positioned to contend for a national seed in the NCAA Tournament with a strong finish to the season. The fact that the game was the first Florida has lost by four runs since March 23, 2015 can’t hurt either.

“It’s big help because when you go through tough stretches in the SEC, it’s such a grind,” Lawson said. “Sometimes you can lose a little confidence. Sometimes you can wonder what you’re doing or if you’re doing things the right way. And so when have an opponent like Florida come in and then you can execute and do all the things that you’ve been working on, it does. It validates what you’re doing and gives you that push to keep going and keep working harder because you see that light at the end of the tunnel.”

UK will try to take another step toward that light on Sunday afternoon. If Prince has anything to say about it, the Cats won’t change their mentality one bit from Saturday.

“The biggest thing tomorrow is just going out the same way,” Prince said. “We still have nothing to lose against Florida.”