Meagan Prince Pitches Kentucky into Sunday’s Regional Final

Box Score (PDF) | Tourney Central

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Senior pitcher Meagan Prince threw her third complete-game shutout of the season on Saturday afternoon as the No. 14 Kentucky softball team powered its way to the Lexington Regional Final with a 1-0 win over the Illinois Fighting Illini. 

With the win, Kentucky is the 2-0 team in the Lexington Regional, and earns a spot in Sunday’s regional final – where it will need to win just one game to advance into the Super Regionals. The Wildcats will face the winner of Saturday night’s elimination game and it will either be Marshall, Illinois or DePaul. 

The game will be shown live on the ESPN Family of Networks with the specific assignment to be relayed on Sunday morning. 

102. Meagan Prince needed just 102 pitches on Saturday to advance the Wildcats into Sunday’s regional final. Prince went the distance, throwing all seven innings, allowing just three hits and retiring the last 14 batters in the Illinois order consecutively. 

The key play in the game was Katie Reed’s play deep in the hole at shortstop in the top of the seventh inning against the Illini’s best hitter, Nicole Evans. The ball was hit on the border of the dirt and the grass with little pace, and Reed scooped it and threw her out for the first out of the inning. 

Breanne Ray was the key player in the game, sending a SAC fly to right field, to score the game’s only run. 

The only run of the game was scored in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Bailey Vick was walked to lead off the inning. Brooklin Hinz layed down a bunt to get Vick to second and then she advanced to third on a single by Martens. Ray then flied out to right, deep enough to score Vick on the SAC fly. FINAL – (14) Kentucky 1, Illinois 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.