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Things to Know From UK Softball’s Weekend Series With Texas A&M

UK picked up two huge wins over the weekend.

UK Athletics

No. 18 Kentucky had a stern test awaiting them in their final home series of the campaign. The visiting Texas A&M Aggies came into Cropp Stadium the No. 4 team in the land with a 40-5 record.

While the Aggies scored a win in the series opener, 4-2, Kentucky rallied late in game two (7-2) and game three (7-4) to score their first series victory over a top-five team since the 2015 season.

The pair of wins pushes Kentucky's record to 34-14 and 11-10 in Southeastern Conference play.

The Wildcats will travel to Starkville this coming weekend to play Mississippi State in their final regular-season games of the year.

Meagan Prince Brought It During Senior Weekend

UK's ace has given her team everything in the circle this season, and she saved some of her best pitching for the Hittin' Kittens biggest series of the weekend.

However, it did not start out that way.

Prince came on in relief of Erin Rethlake during Friday's game with Kentucky trailing 1-0. By game's end, Price gave Kentucky five innings of work, but she surrendered the three runs that gave the Aggies an insurmountable 4-0 lead.

The senior's disappointing outing would be her only one of the series. Prince proved to be a brick wall on Saturday and Sunday.

Prince entered game two with Kentucky trailing 2-0. In five shutout innings, Prince surrendered only one hit, though she walked four to go along with two strikeouts.

The lefty from Tennessee came on in relief on Sunday as well with the game tied at 3. Again, Prince silenced the Aggies' bats to the tune of one run on only three hits allowed. During her four innings of work, Prince struck out one batter and walked five.

Prince's subsequent reward during her final series in Lexington was two wins that improved her record to 18-6 on the year.

Kentucky Kept Fighting All Weekend Long

Despite trailing in all three games, Rachel Lawson's team showed plenty of moxie, especially in the latter innings.

Down 4-0 on Friday, the Wildcats added a run in the bottom of the third inning courtesy of a wild pitch. Jenny Schaper cut the deficit to two runs, 4-2, with a RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.

Kentucky was down 2-0 late in the game on Saturday, but three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning came via singles from Bailey Vick and Breanne Ray. The Wildcats added four more in the sixth after a Katie Reed RBI single and a pair of runs off of A&M walks.

After blowing a 3-0 lead in the series finale, Brooklin Hinz's groundout to short proved to be enough to score pinch runner Brynlee Bigelow in the fifth. One inning later, a solo shot from Schaper and a two-RBI single from Ray put the game out of reach.