LEXINGTON ? Ryan Strieby had three hits, including a monstrous home run to center field, and drove in three to lead Kentucky to an 8-2 upset over No. 8 LSU on Friday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
The Wildcats won their SEC opener for the second time in three years under John Cohen and improved to 16-3 on the season with their seventh straight win. LSU lost a conference opener for the first time under fifth-year head coach Smoke Laval and fell to 16-4.
?This was a great win for us to start conference play,? Kentucky coach John Cohen said. ?But we know LSU is going to come back tomorrow hungry for a win. We have to maintain this level of play and string together wins at home.?
Kentucky goes for the series win on Saturday when the teams meet at 1 p.m. Lefty Craig Snipp (3-0, 1.24) will take the hill for UK against freshman right-hander Louis Coleman (2-0, 3.57). Derik Olvey was originally slated to start, but fell ill. The game can be heard in the Lexington area on WXRA 1580-AM or online at www.UKathletics.com.
Senior starting pitcher Aaron Tennyson improved to 4-1 after hurling 7 2/3 innings and allowing two runs. He scattered eight hits and at one point retired 10 straight while striking out three. He is now 10-2 over the past two seasons.
?Tenny came in and didn?t really have his best stuff, but he battled all day and got some good defense behind him,? Cohen said. ?It?s big for him to come out and pitch the way he did today and get us a huge win.?
Brock Baber relieved Tennyson in the eighth with two on and struck out Jarred Bogany to end the inning. Baber, UK?s active leader in saves, worked a scoreless ninth to preserve the victory.
Playing at home in a conference opener for the first time in seven years, UK got off to a quick start thanks to Lexington native John Shelby. Leading off the second, Shelby crushed a 2-0 pitch over the wall in left field for his third home run in as many games.
?John seems to have really found himself in the past few games and it?s were thrilled to have him swinging the bat the way he is capable,? Cohen said.
LSU answered with a run in the third on an RBI double by Quinn Stewart only to see the Wildcats put two on the board in their half of the inning. With one out, Collin Cowgill roped one of his three singles and Strieby and Matt McKinney walked to load the bases for Shelby.
With Shelby?s home run still in the back of the mind of Tiger starter Clay Dirks, he walked in the go-ahead run on four pitches. Michael Bertram followed with an RBI ground out to make it 3-1.
In the fifth, LSU widened its lead. Strieby led off the frame with a home run, his third of the season. He has now reached safely in all 19 games this season for UK. A walk and an error in the inning gave Kentucky a pair of baserunners with two outs and Ryan Wilkes made them count with a two-run single to left-center field.
Amazingly, Shaun Lehmann raced all the way around from first on the play to make it 6-1. Kentucky tacked on another run in the sixth when Antone DeJesus walked, stole second and scored on a Strieby single.
In the eighth, Strieby drove in his third run of the game with another RBI single, this time scoring Justin Scutchfield.
LSU?s only other score came on a sacrifice fly after Michael Hollander doubled in the eighth.
Dirks, who earned a win over Kentucky last year, took the loss to fall to 3-2 on the year.
Notes: Kentucky won a conference opener for the second time in three years under John Cohen ? It was the first time UK played an SEC opener at home since 1999 ? At 16-3, Kentucky is off to the second-best start in its 102-year history of baseball ? The Wildcats have won seven straight and 10 of their last 11 ? Ryan Strieby had his team-high 10th multi-hit game and team-best eighth multi-RBI game ? Strieby extended his hitting streak to seven games while Matt McKinney had his snapped at six ? John Shelby homered for the third time in three games ? Antone DeJesus scored a run for the 16th time in 18 games (sat one out) ? Aaron Tennyson is 4-1 this season and 10-2 in the past two years ? Tennyson recorded his third quality start (six or more innings, three or fewer runs) of the year and Kentucky?s 11th ? Collin Cowgill had three hits after tallying just nine all in SEC play all of last year.
