Feb. 22, 2000

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky baseball team was rewarded for its hot start on Tuesday, by making its initial appearance of 2000 in the USA Today Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches’ Top 25 Poll at No. 24. The Wildcats are 7-0 on the young season heading into this weekend’s three-game road trip to Birmingham and Nashville.

UK’s ascension into the top 25 keeps five SEC teams in that particular poll as Florida, ranked 19th last week, dropped out of the top 25 after losing two games last week.

The Cats remain unranked in the Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America polls, but hope to crack them this weekend with wins over Alabama-Birmingham, Eastern Illinois and Belmont.

Kentucky has not started a season with seven straight wins since 1987 when the Cats won their first eight games of the year. With another sweep this weekend, the 2000 Cats would equal the second-longest UK winning streak in Coach Keith Madison’s 22 years of 10 victories. That mark was achieved twice, once in 1990 and again in ’96. The Cats still have a ways to go to match the longest winning streak under Madison – 13 straight in 1992.