Before the 2011 Kentucky baseball season began, head coach Gary Henderson said freshman J.T. Riddle was hitting so well in the offseason that Riddle was going to force his way into the lineup.Twenty-one games into season, Henderson looks like a prophet. Riddle, hitting a team-high .413 for the 13-8 Wildcats after Tuesday night’s 4-2 win over Cincinnati, has played so well that he’s playing a position (right field) he hasn’t played since he was a little kid. “A little foresight, huh,” Henderson said of his prediction.Try one talented freshman. As the 2010 Kentucky Mr. Baseball and a 35th-round MLB Draft selection, Henderson knew before the season that Riddle would play a key part on a team that was going to live and die with youth. As a senior at Western Hills High School in Frankfort, Ky., Riddle batted .514 with seven home runs, 62 RBI and 32 runs.With numbers like that, there was little doubt Riddle would be a contributor. The problem was, Riddle signed with UK as the shortstop of the future.Guess who happens to play the six hole for Kentucky? Senior Taylor Black, arguably the Cats’ top returner from a season ago.Henderson still figured he could use him for spots starts and as a backup infielder, but when senior Neiko Johnson was sidelined with a broken finger and freshman Lucas Witt suffered a hip flexor injury, it “demanded” an opportunity in right field, as Henderson described it.Riddle saw the opportunity and seized it.”A couple of outfielders ended up getting hurt and I asked coach, ‘Do you want me to take some balls in the outfield?’ ” Riddle said. “He was like, ‘Actually, you’re starting tomorrow.’ It just kind of went from there.”Since getting his first start in right field Feb. 26, Riddle is 19 for 43 with 10 RBI and nine runs in 14 games. Last week, in a series win over Tennessee and victory over Murray State, Riddle batted .538 (7 for 13) with a homer and a team-best eight RBI en route to Southeastern Conference Player of the Week honors. After Tuesday night’s 3-for-4 night against the Bearcats, he’s hit safely in 11 of 12 games, including nine straight, helping a UK ballclub that lost six of its first 10 games to nine wins in its last 11 games.The man they call “the Riddler” has hit so well that he may be impossible to take out of the lineup. “He’s absolutely done that,” Henderson said, “but I’d also say that he’s done the exact same thing defensively. That showed up a little bit before the offense.”In little league, right field was generally where you’d put your worst defensive player. It’s thought of as the position with the least defensive liability.That isn’t the case with college.Judging balls off the ping of the back can be nerve-wracking. Take a step forward on a hard-hit ball and you could get burnt over your head. Step back on a blooper and it could be the difference between an out and a single.When you take into consideration the quirkiness of the 30-foot wall in right field at Cliff Hagan Stadium, the brick wall down the line and the slicing hits by right-handed batters, not everybody can play right field.And yet, Riddle is doing it like he’s been hugging the right-field line his whole life.”There’s really not a lot to think about when you’re out in the outfield,” Riddle said. “It’s catch it and throw it. Any baseball player at this level, I think, should be able to play any position. If they’re at this level in baseball, college baseball, D-I, SEC level, I think they have the ability to play wherever they want.”Baseball junkies will tell you if you can play shortstop, you can play anywhere on the diamond. The truth is, though, not everybody can play right field. Riddle just happens to be a natural.”He’s a pretty good athlete,” Henderson said. “He’s Mr. Baseball. He’s scoring 25 points a game in basketball (in high school). He’s just a really good athlete and he’s one of those kids that’s got that the-game-doesn’t speed-up-on-him gene. A lot of kids, when they get here for the first part of the schedule, when they’re new, the game speeds up on them. He hasn’t had much of that. The game is slow for him.”In his first career start in right field against Illinois-Chicago, Riddle made a leaping catch and gunned down a runner that was tagging up and trying to advance to third base. Against Tennessee on Friday, he laid out for a diving catch down the right-field line to prevent extra bases and a run. He made a nearly identical catch again Sunday. “It seems like I’ve had at least one (big play) every game since I’ve been out there,” Riddle said. “Making those plays gives you the confidence that if you can make that play, you can make any play in the outfield if you want.”Not bad for a guy who shagged fly balls for just four sessions of batting practice before his first start.”I’d like to tell you it’s good coaching – it isn’t,” Henderson said. “That piece of it right there isn’t about very much coaching. That’s all about a guy that’s able to stay calm and do the same things in the game that he’s been able to do in practice.”Riddle’s upside is tremendous. He’s a gap hitter at the moment, but Henderson believes he’ll hit for power once he hits the weight room this summer and puts on some pounds of muscle.Here’s the kicker: the guy can also pitch.Blessed with four pitches (a four-seam and two-seam fastball, a curveball, and a changeup), Riddle went 8-0 with 1.26 ERA during his final year of high school, striking out 90 in 60 innings.”He’s absolutely at some point going to be able to help us out on the mound,” Henderson said.Henderson planned on getting Riddle on the bump against Murray State last week but was forced to put him back in right field when Witt came up lame again with that hip flexor. The third-year skipper is itching to get him a shot on the mound when the right situation calls, but right now he has more pressing needs.”If he wasn’t playing right field he would be pitching, but he’s not,” Henderson said. “He’s doing this. That’s what we need him to do right now. That’s what the club needs him to do and that’s what he’s going to do for the foreseeable future.”The shortstop of the future and soon-to-be-pitcher is doing so well, it’s going to be hard to force him out of right field.Video interviews following UK’s 4-2 win over Cincinnati on Tuesday: Head coach Gary Henderson
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Freshman pitcher Corey Littrell (WP, 3-1)
