LEXINGTON ? Looking to continue the momentum from Wednesday?s victory over a ranked Evansville squad, the Kentucky baseball team welcomes No. 30 Tennessee to Cliff Hagan Stadium for a three-game series this weekend beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m.
The series continues Saturday at 6:30 p.m. before wrapping up on Sunday at 2 p.m. The first two games of the series can be heard on WXRA 1580-AM with the finale on WLXO 96.1-FM in the Lexington area. All three games can be heard online at the official site for Kentucky athletics, www.ukathletics.com.
Kentucky entered Wednesday?s game against the Purple Aces coming off a couple heart-breaking losses at No. 7 Florida over the weekend. However, the Wildcats responded with a 14-run outburst in the first three innings to cruise to the victory. The team finished with a season-high 17 runs on a season-high 21 hits.
?Confidence is everything,? said Kentucky head coach John Cohen. ?We need to have confidence attacking the ball at the plate. If we can do that, I?ll be pretty comfortable with us offensively.?
Billy Grace, who had missed the previous six games due to injury, showed no rust by blasting a pair of three-run homers to finish with a career-high six RBIs and lead Kentucky to victory.
Grace returns to a line up that has been clicking despite missing his potent bat. John Shelby, who belted his sixth home run in 14 games against Evansville, has six multi-hit and five multi-RBI games in his last eight outings.
Antone DeJesus and Shaun Lehmann have been setting the table for Shelby and company. The duo has combined for 10 extra-base hits and 27 runs scored in their last seven games. Each is batting higher than .460 in that span.
?We have tremendous flexibility now that we have Billy back,? Cohen said. ?It really helps us match up. Having him in the middle allows us to drop some players in the order and gives us a more potent lineup. And I think Billy has tremendous leadership skills, so having him back is going to help tremendously.?
On the mound, Kentucky will turn once again to its youthful squad. Freshman Andrew Albers, who is 3.2 with a 4.48 earned-run average, will get the nod on Friday night against junior Luke Hochevar, the SEC?s strikeout leader. Hochevar is 7-1 with a 1.71 ERA.
?I remember seeing Hochevar pitch as a freshman in our league and he was very solid then,? Cohen said. ?We?re going to have to bear down because he has movement on his fastball to go with two other pitches. He?s a first-round draft pick player. You get the feeling it?s going to be a low scoring game and we?re just going to compete our hearts out.?
The only other starter already scheduled this weekend is Kentucky junior Kalen Gibson, who will go Sunday afternoon.
Tennessee downed Eastern Kentucky in its mid-week tune up to improve to 20-8 on the year. The Vols are second in the SEC Eastern Division at 5-3.
In the past six years, the two teams have split the season series? with each team winning three. Tennessee took the series last year in Knoxville while Kentucky won two of three the last time the teams met in Lexington.
