April 7, 2002
SETTING
* Kentucky will try to avoid a second straight sweep by Tennessee this afternoon. Last season, the Vols swept the Cats at Cliff Hagan Stadium, winning 5-3, 10-5 and 6-0.
* The Wildcats have not faired well on Sunday Southeastern Conference play this season. In three games, the Cats have been outscored 30-5 as they were shut out, 5-0, at Auburn and fell 13-3 and 12-2 to Mississippi State and Ole Miss respectively the past two Sunday’s in Lexington.
* Yesterday’s error-plagued 16-10 setback to the Vols was the 250th game in the Kentucky-Tennessee border war. The SEC Eastern Division rivals first met in 1915. UT leads the series, 137-113.
* A loss today would match last season’s season-high league losing streak of six games. The Cats were swept by Alabama and Tennessee in back-to-back series at Cliff Hagan Stadium in 2001.
* UK has given up more runs this weekend (28) than it did in its first six games of the year (23).
PITCHING
* The Wildcat pitching staff has allowed 78 runs on 110 hits in its past eight games. That is an average of 9.75 runs and 13.75 hits per game in that span.
* The 16 runs given up to the Volunteers yesterday were the most in a SEC game since a 16-11 setback to Arkansas on April 28, 2001 at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
* Joseph Blanton is 10 strikeouts away from being tied with Charlie Loyd (1961) and Brandon Webb (1999) for 10th place on the single-season strikeout list at Kentucky. Brandon Webb set the one-year mark by fanning 123 batters in 2000.
* Joseph Blanton was named the No. 7 prospect overall in the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft by Baseball America this past Monday.
* Today will be Cory Hahn’s second conference start of the season. Replacing Craig Snipp in the weekend rotation against Ole Miss, Hahn threw 6.1 innings and yielded six runs on eight hits in the loss to the Rebels.
HITTING
* The Wildcats have been outscored 69-36 in the final three innings of play this season. Conversely, UK has put up 59 runs to the opponents’ 48 in the first three innings through 29 games.
* Infielder Spencer Graeter has rocked Volunteer pitchers this weekend. Through two games, the Louisville, Ky. native, has went 6-for-8, including a 4-for-4 performance yesterday, with three runs scored and five RBIs.
* Junior infielder Brad Pickrell is riding the crest of an 11-game hitting streak into Sunday’s series finale at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
* UK is batting .209 (50-for-239) vs. left-handed pitchers and .266 (197-for-740) against right-handers. The Cats are hitting .252 as a team coming into today’s game.
* Kentucky has struggled this season with the bases juiced. The Wildcats are hitting .129 (4-for-31) when the bases are loaded this season.
* Sophomore Caleb Stewart is batting a team-high .375 vs. right-handers this season.
* Spencer Graeter leads the UK hitters with a .412 (14-for-34) average in the Cats’ 11 conference games this season.
* Five of Seth Morris’ nine home runs this season are against conference foes. Morris leads UK in at-bats (44), hits (14), home runs (5) and RBI (13) in SEC play this spring. The junior center fielder ripped his first career triple in 494 at-bats in UK’s loss to Tennessee Friday night.
* Senior Robert Newton will try to snap his 16-game homerless streak today. The senior first baseman has not hit the long ball since March 6 in a 9-5 loss to Western Michigan at Applebee’s Park.
BROADCAST
* Today’s game will be broadcast live by WLXO 96.1 FM in the Lexington area with Drew Deener on the call. Live broadcasts and in-game scoring can be accessed from UKAthletics.com.
