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BRADENTON, Fla. ? The Kentucky baseball team split a twin bill with Rhode Island, winning 8-5 in the opener before falling 7-5 in the nightcap, on Sunday at Randy C. Wynn Field.
In the opener, the Wildcats got off to a hot start by scoring four times in the first inning. Kentucky (12-3) batted around and got RBI singles by Kevin Caldwell, JP Lowen and Antone DeJesus for a 4-0 lead.
Rhode Island cut the lead to 4-3 with a pair of solo home runs in the second and a two-out RBI single in the fourth.
Kentucky answered immediately as J.B. Schmidt led off with a single and John Shelby launched a two-run homer. The Wildcats added two more in the sixth as Schmidt and Michael Bertram led off with back-to-back doubles. Brian Hastings singled in Bertram with two outs to extend the lead to 8-4.
Kalen Gibson worked six innings to earn the win and improve to 3-0 on the year. Adam Revelette threw three scoreless innings to pick up his first save of the season.
Eight Wildcats recorded hits in the game, led by two a piece from Hastings, DeJesus and Schmidt.
?I thought we did a good job offensively early in the first game,? said Kentucky head coach John Cohen. ?After that, it seemed like we were trying a little too hard to make something happen.?
In game two, the Rams took advantage of two Kentucky errors to plate six runs in the second inning en route to an early 7-1 lead. The frame chased Wildcat starter Aaron Tennyson, who took the loss to fall to 3-1. Tennyson allowed seven runs, but only two were earned.
Freshman Brock Baber entered in the third and hurled the final four innings of the seven-inning contest without allowing a hit to keep Kentucky close.
?Brock Baber was outstanding today,? Cohen said. ?He came in and pitched tremendously. He really kept us in the game towards the end.?
Despite registering just four hits through the first five innings, the Wildcat bats came alive in the sixth. Bertram led off with a walk and was plated on Hastings? double to left-centerfield. Lehmann singled with one out and Caldwell plated both Hastings and Lehmann on a two-out single.
In the seventh inning, Shelby drew a one-out walk and was followed by singles by Bertram and Hastings as Kentucky looked to win in its final at bat. With the winning run at the plate, Billy Grace struck out and Lehmann drove one to the warning track just in the deepest part of the park.
?We finally woke up and were seeing the ball well at the end, we just ran out of time,? Cohen said. ?With a normal nine-inning game, I would have liked our chances to pick up the win.?
Hastings finished 4-for-4 in game two with a pair of doubles and two RBI. He had six hits total on the day.
Kentucky returns to action on Tuesday against Miami (Ohio) at 7 p.m.
