April 22, 2000
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky pitching staff allowed 10 homeruns in a doubleheader to No. 1 South Carolina on Saturday afternoon tosweep the twin-bill, winning the opener 15-5 and grabbing the night cap in10 innings, 11-10. Trey Dyson and Tripp Kelly homered in each game for theGamecocks while Brandon Pack hit a pair in game one before hitting anotherin game two.
The Wildcats (29-11-1, 7-11-1 Southeastern Conference) played top-rankedUSC down to the wire in each contest, but reliever Scott Barber closed thedoor on the Cats by earning the save in both games, pitching four inningsof scoreless relief. Barber added to the frustrations of the Cats, who lostboth games despite piling up 29 hits in the two games. UK stranded 21runners in the two games.
Carolina (40-4, 17-3 SEC) pulled out each victory in the late innings asthey proved to be too much for the underdog Cats. In game one, USC broke a5-5 sixth-inning tie with the long ball as the Gamecocks broke the gameopen with a homer in the seventh and three more in the ninth, includingback-to-back blasts by Pack and Dyson off UK’s Breck Price. In game two,the Gamecocks survived a four-run ninth-inning comeback by the Cats toscore the game-winning run on a wild pitch in the tenth.
The Cats roughed up USC ace Kip Bouknight to the tune of 12 hits and fiveruns (earned) in the opener, but the SEC’s winningest pitcher hung aroundlong enough to get his league leading 12th victory.
UK grabbed a 3-2 lead in the third off Bouknight (12-0) on the strength ofAndy Green’s first of two home runs in the doubleheader and an RBI singleby Aaron McGlone. UK’s Brandon Webb pitched effectively over seven innings,striking out seven and walking just two, but was touched for nine runs (sixearned) and 11 hits including three home runs. The big blows against Webb(5-3) came off the bats of Pack and Kelly, as each crushed three-run homersoff the junior right-hander.
Despite the disappointment of the game one defeat, the Cats busted out ofthe gates in game two. After Green, Beau Moore and Wilson reached base tostart the game, McGlone gave UK a 4-0 lead with his second grand slam ofthe season. McGlone also hit a four-run four-bagger in UK’s 17-0whitewashing of Yale. Green made it 5-0 in the next inning with his secondhomer of the day and career-high 8th this season. After the Cats addedanother run in the fourth on a balk, USC narrowed the gap to 6-5 off UKstarter Rob Corrado as Marcus McBeth, Pack and Dyson all took the bigright-hander over the wall.
Mark Michael got the Cats out of the fifth and pitched a scoreless sixth,but got into trouble in the seventh. After two hits and a walk to open theinning, Dyson gave USC the lead with a two-run single. Kelly followed Dysonwith a three-run homer that knocked Michael from the game. Down but notout, the Cats rallied in the ninth to tie the game at 10-10 with four runson three hits, three walks and a sacrifice fly. Jeff Meade’s double downthe right field line was the final blow, extending the game to extra frames.
In the tenth, lead-off hitter Nate Janowicz singled off Josh Paxton,beginning his third inning of work, who was then relieved by closer JonHooker. After a groundout advanced Janowicz to second and a passed ballmoved his to third, he came home on a wild pitch. Janowicz, who homered ingame one, hustled home to score without drawing a throw. Despite allowingjust one unearned run, Paxton (2-2) was tabbed with the loss while USCreliever John Wesley, who retired the last two hitters in the ninth, earnedthe victory. Wesley (2-1) allowed one run (earned) on a walk and two hits.
UK’s all-time hit leaders, McGlone and Green, led the Cats with four andfive hits on the day, respectively, while McGlone’s grand slam moved himpast Mike Botkin for first on the all-time UK RBI list. Botkin tallied 162from 1979-82, but McGlone’s slam gave him career runs batted in 162 through165.
TThe Wildcats will attempt to avoid being swept by the Gamecocks for thefirst time since 1992 when the two teams meet for the series finale onSunday afternoon at 1 p.m. EDT. The game will be broadcast locally on theradio on AM 1580 WSAI, on the internet at www.ukathletics.com andregionally televised on Fox Sports South.
