Ryan Waldschmidt explains Kentucky bouncing back from first game struggles to dominate vs. Illinois

In Game 4 of the Lexington regional, the Kentucky Wildcats secured a spot in the regional finals following an impressive 6-1 victory over the Illinois Fighting Illini.

After the game, Wildcats leadoff hitter and star of the contest Ryan Waldschmidt stopped and chatted with the ESPN team covering all the action in Lexington. During his postgame interview, the Kentucky infielder shared his thoughts about everything coming together for the program during this year’s regionals.

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 “I think everything just has to take that next step postseason if you want to play as long as you can, and I think today we did that,” Waldschmidt said. “Yesterday, we got away with a little bit of struggles on defense and pitching; we hit the ball well. But today, we came out, and the pitching was lights out. It started with Pooser, and then after that, Hags came in and just handed it. So everyone just had to step up today and just do their job and I think everyone did that.

Starting pitcher Trey Pooser composed an excellent performance from the mound against Illinois. The right-handed pitcher allowed five hits, one run, two walks, and seven strikeouts while facing 27 batters. Poser got the win; however, Ryan Hagenow picked up the save after shutting out Illinois in the final two innings to secure the victory for Kentucky.

Waldschmidt also shared a few thoughts about his late-game home run, revealing whether or not he knew he smacked the ball +400 ft.

“I did not get word on that,” said Waldschmidt. “All I know is in the dugout, Ruben Church was sitting there, and he was saying: ‘Hey man, the wind shifted.’— because I hit the one early in the game that got caught up in the wind a little bit.”

Waldschmidt, while putting together another outing of fine hitting, finished the game 3-5 in his at-bats with three RBIs and scoring one run himself. That one run came off of the aforementioned two-run 444 ft. home run, which came in the 9th inning to solidify Kentucky’s 6-1 win.

Kentucky now has the inside track into making it to the super regional round as they need just one win in order to advance. The Wildcats We’ll play the winner out of the upcoming showdown between Illinois and Indiana State. The sycamores, the Lexington regional No. 2 seed, were dispatched by the Illini in Game 2, losing 4-1. Now, in a loser-goes-home matchup, Indiana State will have the opportunity to get revenge against Illinois, send them home packing, and go toe toe-to-toe with the top-seeded Wildcats.