Following a 12-inning, three-and-a-half-hour duel between Marshall and Illinois on Friday, the UK softball team played host to the DePaul Blue Demons in their first matchup of the Lexington Regional round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Cats took the win 6-0 and will advance to face Illinois, the victor of the previous game, on Saturday at noon.

UK had one of the most electric first innings of the season, scoring five runs on four at-bats that gave at least one RBI to four players, three of which were underclassmen.

One of those players was Alex Martens, a freshman that earned 2 RBI and a run on 2-3 batting for the game.

“Coming out hot is really important,” Martens said after the game. “We have momentum, and we can back up the pitcher so she doesn’t have to work.”

Martens is one of the two freshmen that started in their first NCAA Tournament game, and UK head coach Rachel Lawson spoke highly of her underclassmen.

“They did a pretty good job defensively,” Lawson said. “You can control a lot of the things you do on defense, so I was really pleased with how they handled themselves that way.”

The second freshman to start the game was Bailey Vick, who provided spark plug moments for the Cats throughout the game, including a collision with a DePaul infielder to steal second base.

Vick ended the game with a hit and a stolen base, giving the Cats a lot of energy from the DP spot.

Senior pitcher Meagan Prince nearly threw a complete game, and was dominating the Blue Demon batters all game long, limiting them to only two hits on the game.

“She definitely had a drop ball that we were having a hard time playing off of,” said DePaul first baseman Dylan Christensen. “We had a lot of groundouts. She was consistent, she hit her spots.”

The Cats now advance to take on the Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday. Illinois’ primary pitcher, Breanna Wonderly, threw 173 pitches in her complete game earlier Friday, nearly triple the amount Prince threw the following game.

Time will tell if fatigue will give the Cats the advantage as they look to advance to Sunday’s matchup, and eventually super regionals.