Mason Moore shares emotions of making Super Regionals in front of home crowd

It took the Wildcats five games during the Lexington Regional but they got it done, sealing the deal on Monday by defeating Indiana 4-2 to advance to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history.

Kentucky played in front of a sell-out crowd Monday, with 6,796 fans in attendance setting a new home record. And after the game, sophomore right-handed pitcher Mason Moore spoke to the mindset of himself and his team on Monday night.

“Like Gillie (Hunter Gilliam) said yesterday, we don’t do tired,” Moore said. “I know I wasn’t 100 percent tonight. I knew I had one job and that was to go out there and give my best effort with the defense I had behind me. I had no worries they’d make every play. And that was my mindset to go out there and just give the best performance I can for the team.”

Moore had an amazing regional round on the mound, pitching the final five innings of Monday’s win in shutout fashion. He allowed no runs, just four hits (which were all singles), and struck out four batters on the day to help hold off the Hoosiers.

And he was likely not feeling 100 percent because just a few days prior on Friday he pitched another five shutout innings versus Ball State to secure the Wildcats’ first win of the regional weekend. Moore didn’t allow a single run during regionals, earning a spot on NCAA Baseball’s Lexington All-Region team for his performance and pushing his record to 4-1 on the season.

Moore may have taken care of business on the mound, but he also got help from some clutch offense.

Two sacrifice fly outs gave the Wildcats two runs in the first inning before they’d go on a four-inning scoring drought. And with the game tied at two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Gilliam struck a double down the left field line to give the Wildcats their first lead of the ballgame. A Ryan Waldschmidt double two at bats later would send Gilliam home and gave Kentucky the 4-2 lead they needed to pull off the win.

Kentucky now advances to face a familiar conference foe, as they’ll take on the No. 5 national seed LSU Tigers in the Baton Rouge Super Regional Saturday at 3:00 p.m. airing on ESPN.

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