March 15, 2000
RICHMOND, Ky. – The 18th-ranked University of Kentucky baseball team hit a season-high six home runs as John Wilson and Andy Green each hit two, leading the Wildcats to a 13-5 win over Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday. Despite the expansive dimensions of EKU’s Turkey Hughes Field, catcher John Wilson was able to post his sixth career multi-homer game and tie the all-time school record with his 41st career round-tripper. Wilson now has a team-high nine homers this season and five in the last five games.
Green also had a memorable four-bagger as he was credited with an inside-the-park homer in the eighth inning when his line drive to center hopped over the diving centerfielder. The homer was Green’s career-high sixth of the season and drove in three runs, giving UK a 12-3 lead. With his 3-for-5 day, Green extended his hitting streak to nine games and recorded a career-high five RBI. His lead-off home run on the fourth pitch of the game gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead while Wilson’s first of the game one hitter later paced the Cats to a 4-0 first inning lead.
Also extending a hitting streak was Vince Harrison who pushed his current streak to 11 games with a line-drive homer to right center in the fifth that gave the Cats a 9-1 lead. Kentucky (18-2, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) is a perfect 9-0 this season when scoring at least nine runs. UK starter Scott Wade made the early run support stand up as he pitched a solid five innings to earn his fourth victory of the season. Wade (4-1) allowed just one run on six hits, while walking none and striking out three. The Wildcats also got solid relief work from Jon Hooker, who threw 1-1/3 scoreless innings.
Being touched for all of the damage in the first five innings was EKU starter Chip Albright (2-2) who was roughed up for nine runs on 10 hits, allowing four of the home runs as he labored through five innings of work. Being charged with all four eighth inning runs for Eastern Kentucky (5-10) was reliever Keith Murnane who gave up five hits and two walks in his lone inning of work.
Left fielder Aaron McGlone was the fourth Wildcat to go deep in the game as his opposite field blast in the eighth gave UK its biggest lead of the game at 13-3. In addition to his third home run of the season, McGlone had his first perfect day at the plate this season, going 4-for-4 with a double and a walk, two RBI and three runs scored. Beau Moore also had a fine day, compiling his first multi-hit game since the first week of the season with a 2-for-3 effort, a stolen base and one run scored.
The Wildcats enter their SEC home-opening series against No. 17 Mississippi State this weekend on a power surge connecting for nine home runs by six different players in the last two ball games. The defending SEC Home Run Champion, John Wilson, has three of those long balls. The series opener is scheduled for a 3:05 p.m. first pitch on Friday, March 17 at UK’s Cliff Hagan Stadium. Slated to go in game one for the Cats is Brandon Webb (4-0). Game two on Saturday, as well as the series finale on Sunday, is set to get underway at 2:05 p.m. Tickets are still available.
With 18 victories, UK enters the series with its best record after 20 games in coach Keith Madison’s 22-year career at Kentucky. The Wildcats are currently on a three-game win streak after having its school-record and season-opening 15-game streak interrupted by losses in the first two of three games against No. 8 Alabama last weekend. The MSU Bulldogs are streaking as well, winning their last six games heading into Wednesday’s home game with Tennessee-Martin. State (15-2, 3-0 SEC) is coming off a three-game sweep of Vanderbilt in its SEC home-opening series last weekend.
The Cats and Bulldogs can expect a hard-fought series with both teams having similar early season success this year and doing so with solid pitching, timely hitting and fundamentally sound defense. Both teams had lengthy winning streaks to start the season 15 games for UK, nine games for MSU while each team matches up favorably with the other in the SEC pitching, hitting and defensive standings. For all games played entering this week, MSU is 9th in the SEC with a .312 team batting average, while UK’s .308 is 10th, UK’s 2.88 ERA is 2nd while MSU is 3rd at 2.94 and MSU is tied for 2nd in the SEC with a .969 fielding percentage with the Cats 3rd at .968.
