LEXINGTON ? John Shelby hit three home runs and drove in a career-high five runs to lift Kentucky to an 11-8 victory in game two of the Wildcats doubleheader against Arkansas, which won game one 8-5, on Saturday at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
With the split, Kentucky moved to 22-20 on the year and 4-15 in the Southeastern Conference. The Razorbacks, ranked 15th nationally, now stand at 33-12 overall and 9-11 in the league. Game three of the series is slated for 1 p.m. Sunday and can be heard in the Lexington area on WLXO 96.1-FM as well as online at www.UKathletics.com.
Kentucky will be looking for its first series win of the year after dropping its last three Sunday games by one run each when trying to win the series. Freshman lefty Andrew Albers (3-4, 4.97) takes the hill for Kentucky while Lee Land (1-1, 1.86) goes for Arkansas.
Shelby?s hit each of his three homers off different pitchers en route to a 4-for-4 day and a career-high 13 total bases. He also stole a base and matched a career high by scoring four runs.
His first dinger, a two-run shot off starter Daryl Maday, extended the Wildcats lead to 4-0 in the first inning. It scored Shaun Lehmann, who had belted a two-run double earlier in the inning.
In the third, Shelby tagged his second two-run home run of the day to extend the Kentucky lead to 8-1. Again, it was Lehmann on base after he was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Devin Collis served it up.
Shelby?s third homer came in his final at bat in the seventh. He launched a Shaun Seibert offering over the wall in centerfield for a 10-7 lead
It wasn?t just Shelby who was hitting in game two for Kentucky. Eight Wildcat starters had hits, including two each by Ryan Wilkes, Antone DeJesus and J.P. Lowen, as the team pounded out 14 total. Wilkes hit his first career home run in the second off Maday and had an RBI double in the seventh.
J.B. Schmidt followed Wilkes home run with a single to chase Maday after retiring just three batters. He was tagged for six runs on six hits while walking one and striking out two. It was his first career loss as he fell to 9-1 in his Razorback career.
After trailing 8-1, Arkansas came back off Kentucky starter Aaron Tennyson and reliever Craig Snipp to make it a close game. The Razorbacks batted around in the fourth to score four runs on Tennyson. Chris Hollensworth?s two-run home run in the fifth off Snipp cut the lead to 8-7. Hollensworth finished 4-for-5 with three RBIs and three runs scored while belting a pair of homers.
Shelby answered for Kentucky in the bottom of the fifth when he singled, went to second on a Lowen walk and stole third before Kevin Caldwell plated him with a sacrifice fly.
After allowing the home run to Hollensworth, Snipp retired six straight to turn the lead over to Brock Baber, who worked the final three innings to earn his fourth save. Snipp got the win to even his record at 3-3.
In game one, Arkansas got a quality start from Nick Schmidt, who worked six innings and gave up two runs on six hits while fanning seven and walking three. Both Kentucky runs off Schmidt came in the first inning before he settled down to allow just three hits over the next five frames.
The Razorbacks built an 8-2 lead with single runs in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth and two-run innings in the third and eighth. Kentucky rallied for three in the ninth to make it interesting, but never managed to get the tying run to the plate. DeJesus had three of the Wildcats nine hits in the game.
Kalen Gibson took the loss for the Wildcats after hurling 7 1/3 innings ? his longest outing of the year. He gave up eight runs ? six earned ? on 12 hits.
