LEXINGTON (March 14) – The University of Kentucky baseball team moved up two spots in the most recent USA Today Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches poll to No. 18 after winning one of three games against No. 8 Alabama in Tuscaloosa last weekend in the opening series of the 2000 Southeastern Conference schedule. The Cats (16-2, 1-2 SEC) held at No. 20 in the Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll and fell one spot to No. 25 in Baseball America.
The Wildcats will try to stretch its winning streak at home to eight games on Tuesday at Hagan Stadium as they play host to the Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters (9-12). First pitch is set for 3:05 p.m. with Aaron Wilson (1-0) making his second consecutive mid-week start for the Cats. Wilson pitched three scoreless innings in UK’s 17-0 whitewashing of Yale on March 8. Opposing Wilson will be LMU left-hander Andy Yetter (0-3). Lincoln Memorial (Harrogate, Tenn.) had a three-game win streak ended game by Carson-Newman, 15-9, in its previous game on March 12. UK has an all-time 4-0 record versus LMU, with all four games coming during the ’90’s. The last meeting between the two teams came in 1998 with the Cats taking a nail-biter, 11-10, in Lexington.
UK will travel to Richmond on Wednesday to meet Eastern Kentucky (5-9), in a game that will not be webcast because EKU’s Turkey Hughes Field lacks the facillities for a visiting broadcast team. First pitch in the first of two scheduled UK-EKU match-ups this season is set for 3:05 p.m. The Cats will play host to the Colonels on April 11. Making his first career mid-week start for the Cats will be freshman Scott Wade (3-1), who will be opposed by Chip Albright (2-1) of EKU. Wednesday’s meeting will be the 85th game in the UK-EKU series, with the Wildcats holding a 59-24-1 all-time advantage. The two teams have split the last eight meetings, spanning six seasons, including home wins by each team last year.
The Cats will be looking to re-solidify their pitching and defense in preparation for their SEC home-opening series this weekend when they meet their second ranked opponent of the season in No. 17 Mississippi State (14-2 3-0 SEC). After showing the most control of any SEC pitching staff heading into play against Alabama last weekend, UK pitchers walked 19 hitters, hit seven and uncorked five wild pitches in the three games with the Crimson Tide. The Cats also took a step back defensively as they committed five errors in their gut-wrenching 11-10 win on March 12, dropping their previous SEC-leading fielding percentage to fourth in the conference. The Bulldogs are coming off a three-game sweep of Vanderbilt last weekend at MSU’s Dudy-Noble Field.
