No. 18 Kentucky Splits Doubleheader at Evansville
Evansville, Ind. – No. 18 Kentucky split a Saturday doubleheader at Evansville, staging a comeback in the opener before generating only four hits in a shutout loss in the nightcap.
In the front end of the doubleheader, the Cats prevailed 5-3 by continuing to apply pressure on the Aces until the dam finally broke with Ethan Hindle’s bases loaded ground rule double to left. The go-ahead hit came after a pair of hit by pitch to open the inning followed by Tagger Tyson’s perfectly placed bunt single. Hindle’s bolt of lightning came after UK had gone 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position through seven innings and trailed 3-1.
Ben Cleaver allowed just one earned run in four innings and Jack Bennett pitched two scoreless frames to record his first save in blue. Connor Mattison and Ryan Mullan also recorded important outs to keep the contest within reach until the Cats could mount a comeback.
In game two, the difference was a two-out rally by the Aces in the second inning. After recording a pair of strikeouts to open the inning, Nate Harris suddenly lost the strike zone and walked back-to-back batters on a total of nine pitches. That was followed by a bloop single to score the only run of the contest.
The Cats couldn’t muster a second rally of the day and left 10 runners on base. They put two runners on base in the ninth but could not plate the tying run.
NOTES
- Kentucky is 5-2 on the season.
- UK is 122-65 since the beginning of 2023.
- UK Coach Nick Mingione is in his 10th season at the helm and now owns a 298-194 career record.
- Mingione is the second-winningest coach in school history.
- UK is 58-20 in the month of February under Coach Mingione.
- Mingione is 174-54 in non-conference games.
- He is 153-25 vs. non-Power Four opponents.
- Mingione now is 8-1 vs. Evansville.
- Mingione is 22-5 vs. teams from the state of Indiana.
ON DECK
UK hosts Western Kentucky on Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. The game is on SECN+ and the contest can be heard on UK Sports Network.
