Wildcat fans shatter attendance record during Regional Baseball final
LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ)- There was lot of excitement at Kentucky Proud Park ahead of Monday night’s NCAA Lexington regional final. There were a record number of fans coming through the gates over the weekend.
In total Monday night, fans set a new attendance record in UK Baseball history with 6,796.
“We wanted to be first. We wanted to get here first because we didn’t get reserve seats,” says Dawn Colvin.
Colvin and her son Wyatt were first in line outside of KPP ahead of the game. The Colvins made the trip from Louisville. Colvin, a UK alum, was excited to share the experience with her son.
“I never went to a baseball game. So to now come back, thirty years later, I know I’m giving my age there with my son who loves baseball, to do this with him is just amazing for a mom,” says Colvin.
Hundreds of fans were there as gates opened Monday night. The Cats have won back to back elimination games to make it to the winner-take-all final. On Saturday, 6,094 fans, which was the largest crowd in UK baseball history.
UK athletics officials were expecting Monday night’s attendance to break Saturday’s record. In fact- primary reserved and general admission tickets sold out quickly.
Deputy Athletics Director Marc Hill tells ABC 36 games like this mean a lot for the Wildcat fan base and for the future of UK baseball.
“The vision of building Kentucky Proud Park back seven, eight years ago, this is what we all envisioned. Huge crowds. Five, six, seven thousand people at a time. And when we have space next year when we host a regional again we hope and have a good ball club and put in bleachers to where its seventy-five hundred people . We anticipate tonight to have crowd larger than Saturday night,” says Hill.
Glen Lecomte had been tailgating since Friday. He says they wouldn’t miss this regional final game for anything.
“We always wanted to come to a baseball game. This is a perfect time,” says Lecomte.
UK went on to beat Indiana in the final to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals. This marked the second time in school history UK made the NCAA Super Regionals. They will next play LSU in Baton Rouge.
