March 13, 2000
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Kentucky baseball team had its school-record 15-game win streak ended by the Alabama Crimson Tide in game one of Saturday’s Southeastern Conference-opening double header as the Tide scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth off UK closer Breck Price to beat the Cats, 5-4.
Coming into the game having allowed just one hit and no runs in 8-1/3 innings pitched this year, Price relieved John Hooker with a man on first base and one out in the ninth. But Price (1-1) surrendered a double to Darren Wood over the head of center-fielder Beau Moore to tie the game and a single by Sam Bozanich to score Wood with the winning run. Wood was 3-for-3 in the game, driving in three of ‘Bama’s five runs.
UK relievers had previously been 8-for-8 in stranding inherited runners this season, holding every lead that had been handed to them through the first 15 games. The two runs by Alabama (14-5, 1-0 SEC) in the ninth marked the first time all season that the Tide had scored in the game’s final frame.
Bozanich’s late-inning heroics came on the heels of John Wilson’s eighth inning home run that gave Kentucky (15-1, 0-1 SEC) a seemingly secure 4-3 lead.
In a game that saw four lead changes, Andy Green got the Wildcats off to a quick start with a double off the left-centerfield wall leading off the game. He came home on a groundout by Aaron McGlone, giving UK a 1-0 lead that it held until the fifth inning. Green was the lone Wildcat to collect more than one hit in the game as he finished a triple shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4.
UK starter Brandon Webb ran into control problems in the fifth as he hit two batters, both of which came around to score on a triple by Wood, giving the Tide a 2-1 lead. Prior to the two runs in the fifth, UK pitchers had held the opposition scoreless in 32 of the last 33 innings, spanning the last five games. The ‘Bama lead was short lived however, as Green’s home run in the next half inning, his fourth of the season, curved around the leftfield foul pole to tie the game.
UK fell behind again as Webb’s control problems caught up to him in the seventh, forcing him from the game. Webb walked the bases loaded with 16 balls on 17 pitches, including three wild pitches that plated the go-ahead run, before giving way to Hooker. Hooker ended the threat as Vince Harrison made a great diving play on a grounder, ending the inning by tagging third and throwing to first to turn the double play.
The Wildcats rallied again in the eighth to retake the lead off ‘Bama starter Scott Murphy. After a lead-off infield single by Green and a hit-and-run single by Harrison, the Cats tied with game with a double play groundout by Aaron McGlone. John Wilson’s team-high fifth round-tripper of the season put UK back on top and knocked Murphy from the game. But reliever James Carroll (2-0) retired Robert Newton to end the threat in the eighth and sat the Cats down in order in the ninth to gain the victory.
