LEXINGTON — As Brody Harding's single zipped out of the infield, Kentucky right fielder James McCoy grabbed the ball, gathered himself, and without missing a beat, fired to home plate. It obstructed Illinois' base runners from advancing any farther. And it made Harding's hit a mere single instead of a run-scoring base knock.

Two batters later, with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second and facing a 3-2 count, UK ace Trey Pooser sat down Connor Milton.

Crisis averted.

Kentucky's lead remained 2-0 after two innings.

McCoy's superlative throw from the outfield was but one example of Kentucky defensive excellence on display Saturday, as the Wildcats stymied the Fighting Illini's offense at nearly every opportunity to take a 6-1 win in the NCAA Tournament Lexington Regional clash at Kentucky Proud Park.

"Think about that play," Kentucky coach Nick Mingione said, referring to McCoy's second-inning throw. "Then what about the line drive that he caught over his head to end the seventh? There was a guy at third base. If he does not make that play? That saved another run. So he alone saved us two runs, saved us two runs.

"If he doesn't make both of those plays, the game is totally different."

Along with McCoy's run-preventing toss from deep, Kentucky (42-14) came up with a pair of double plays that thwarted potential scoring chances for Illinois (35-20).

Second baseman Émilien Pitre was almost solely responsible for one of the double plays. And it was a web gem. In the bottom of the fifth — the Wildcats batted first Saturday, though they remained in their usual dugout down the third-base line — the 5-foot-11 Pitre used every inch of his frame to steal a hit from Cal Hejza, leaping to snag the line drive. As soon as Pitre's feet hit the ground, he tossed over to first baseman Ryan Nicholson to put out Milton.

"Just a really athletic play from Pitre," Nicholson said. "He's been making those plays — I think he's made quite a few of them over the course of the season. Just something like that at the start of (an) inning really can give our team and Pooser a lot of momentum going forward, especially (since) it can suck the life out of the other team offensively. So I think that was just a big momentum swing.

"That got a lot of boys going there."

So lengthy was UK's list of stellar defensive plays Saturday, Mingione spent 2 ½ minutes during one portion of his postgame news conference to spotlight them all. Even if they weren't as obvious to the casual observer as Pitre's peak performance.

"These things do not show up in a box score," Mingione said. "Our sport is, like, amazing. These stats are awesome, but they don't tell the whole story."

Ryan Waldschmidt's big day at the plate key for Kentucky

No batter was better Saturday than Kentucky's leadoff man, Ryan Waldschmidt. UK's starting left fielder, Waldschmidt had a game-high three hits (he was 3 for 5 overall), which included a game-sealing two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning that sailed 444 feet over the wall once the ball left his bat. Waldschmidt also led all players Saturday in RBIs (three) and notched another extra-base hit, a double, to go along with his homer.

Mingione dubbed Waldschmidt "the table setter" for the Wildcats' offense.

"Waldy is never out of an at-bat," Mingione said. "He's special. … He can change the game at any point in time. We got him back full time after his ACL surgery, (and) that is when our lineup just took off.

"I really believe in my heart it was the insertion of him, every day full time in left field in our lineup, (as the reason) we've been scoring runs ever since."

Illinois coach Dan Hartleb could have gone without seeing Waldschmidt step into the batter's box Saturday, though.

"He's got a lot of plate awareness. He doesn't swing at pitches out of the zone," Hartleb said. "You put him on base and all of a sudden you've got a stealing threat there, which puts pressure on your pitcher — a guy that makes it very, very difficult, I think, from a mentality standpoint with pitchers. Really good player."

Trey Pooser keeps Illinois' powerful lineup in check

Illinois entered Saturday with one of the nation's most formidable offenses, leading the Big Ten in both total home runs (103) and home runs per game (1.91), ranking in the top 25 of Division I in both categories.

But the Fighting Illini had a power outage thanks to Pooser.

Illinois didn't record an extra-base hit — let alone a homer — in its five-run loss.

"I was trying to get ahead as much as possible, and fastball-change-up combo was working really well today," said Pooser, the College of Charleston transfer who was credited with the win Saturday after going seven innings, allowing one run (earned) and two walks. He struck out seven of the 27 batters he faced. "Didn't really have a feel for my curveball as much, but the fastball-change-up (combo) really played today."

Jacob Schroeder begged to differ about Pooser's curveball.

"He was just commanding all three of his pitches and throwing them all for a strike, getting ahead, and putting them in good spots a lot," said Schroeder, Illinois' starting catcher. "Wasn't a lot of really good pitches to hit all day."

Pooser's ability to effortlessly shuffle between his arsenal of pitches, Mingione said, was the best strategy to keep Illinois off balance.

"Trey coming out of the portal, I thought he had one of the best change-ups in the transfer portal. … That was a huge pitch for him today," Mingione said. "You heard him say that maybe he didn't land his breaking ball as much as he wanted, but his ability to just throw an off-speed pitch at any point in time — first pitch or behind in the count — was absolutely crucial."

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky baseball beats Illinois in Lexington Regional