BATON ROUGE – For the second straight night, the University of Kentucky baseball team hung tough with the #7 LSU Tigers, but was unable to pull out a victory, losing 9-5, on Saturday at Alex Box Stadium.
The Cats recorded nine hits, three off of the bat of Caleb Brock, but were unable to contain the LSU offense, as the Tigers racked up 15 base knocks.
UK head coach Keith Madison was ejected from the game in the bottom of the seventh inning after arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire A.J. Lostaglio. The loss marked the Wildcats’ eighth straight in Southeastern Conference play.
UK (12-16, 2-9 SEC) jumped out to an early lead for the second-straight night, this time on an RBI single from Jon Love in the first inning.
LSU (21-7-1, 8-3 SEC) responded with two runs in the bottom-half of the second before the Wildcats evened the score with a run in the third.
The Tigers exploded for four runs in their half of the third, the biggest blow coming via a three-run homer from Wally Pontiff that put LSU up 6-2.
Trailing by five, UK fought back with three runs in the fifth. Beau Moore led off the inning with a double, and Spencer Graeter followed up with an RBI double of his own, scoring Moore. Caleb Brock’s one out singled plated Graeter and Gordon Tyler’s sacrifice fly scored Spencer Preston, who had reached on a walk. UK trailed at the end of five innings, 7-5.
That would be as close at the Cats would get as LSU would tack-on solo runs in the seventh and eighth innings to make the final tally 9-5.
UK sophomore Mark Michael pitched well in relief of starter Rob Corrado. Michael went 4 2/3 innings, giving up only five hits and two earned runs while striking out two. Corrado was saddled with his third consecutive loss after beginning the season 4-0.
Aside from Brock, Moore was the only Cat player to record multiple hits. Both of Moore’s hits went for extra-bases, a triple and a double.
Pontiff led LSU with three hits and racked up five RBI. Leadoff hitter Ryan Theriot also recorded three hits.
The series finale will get underway tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. Joseph Blanton will be on the hill for the Wildcats. Bo Pettit will start for LSU.
