Sept. 21, 2012
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky got RBI knocks from Matt Reida, A.J. Reed, Zac Zellers, Paul McConkey and Thomas Bernal in the first official team intrasquad scrimmage of the UK baseball fall practice season, on a gorgeous Friday afternoon at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
The Wildcats opened up their fall practice season on Friday afternoon at Cliff Hagan, as the team split into a Blue and Black squad and scrimmaged for six complete innings.
The two teams played a 3-3 game through six innings, with the Blue team plating all three innings in the bottom of the first inning and the Black team plating three runs in the top of the sixth. Several returners pitched, including Martin, Wijas, Jeff Boehm and Zack Strecker, in addition to newcomers Tyler Cox and Matt Pope. Boehm allowed the runs in the bottom of the first, before rebounding for a shutout second frame. Each UK pitcher tossed two innings in the fall season scrimmage opener.
The two teams combined for a total of 15 hits in the six innings, with Reida’s double in the first starting the scoring. UK also got hits from Boehm, McConkey, Reed, Zellers, J.T. Riddle, Jacob Russell, Zach Storm, Lucas Witt, Austin Cousino and Max Kuhn.
After Zellers lined an RBI into rightfield, Reed delivered a two-RBI double into the left-centerfield gap in the sixth inning to tie the game at 3-3.
UK is coming off the best season in the over 100-year history of the program and will enter the 2013 season as one of the top teams in college baseball. The Wildcats won a school-record 45 games in 2012, including their best finish in NCAA and Southeastern Conference Tournament history.
Kentucky returns a bevy of talent from the 2012 roster, including a highly talented pitching staff and a bullpen that was 40-0 a year ago when leading after seven innings. UK returns the SEC Freshman of the Year, Cousino, SEC Coach of the Year Gary Henderson, and led the NCAA in players in the Cape Cod League or with the USA National Team during the summer.
