The University of Kentucky baseball team will travel toStarkville, Miss., for a three-game Southeastern Conference series with#25 Mississippi State, April 20-22, at Dudy-Noble Field. The series getsunderway on Friday at 6 p.m. CST, and will be broadcast live on FoxSports Net South.

UK enters Friday’s series opener with an overall record of 18-22,5-13 in SEC play. The Cats have played well of late, taking two of threefrom Vanderbilt last weekend and knocking off Western Kentucky on Wednesday.

Improved hitting has been the key to the Wildcats recent surge.UK’s team batting average has been on a steady climb in the past monthand currently stands at .288. Gordon Tyler is the Wildcats leading hitterat .343. Five other UK players are batting above .300. Seth Morriscontinues to be the Wildcats primary long-ball threat. Morris’ homeragainst WKU gave him a team-best 11 for the season.

Pitching has been a constant for UK this season. Scott Wade leadsa talented corps of hurlers with a 2.87 ERA. Wade, who will open theseries on the mound for the Cats, has tossed three complete games, twocoming in SEC play, in addition to one shutout. As a staff, the Wildcatsboast an ERA of 4.53.

MSU (23-15, 11-7 SEC) jumped back into the national polls aftertaking two of three games from South Carolina last weekend. The Bulldogs,a perennial power in the SEC Western Division, have the luxury of playingat one of collegiate baseball’s most intimidating facilities inDudy-Noble Field. MSU draws in excess of 6,000 fans for most home games.

Game time for Saturday is scheduled for 4 p.m. CST. Sunday’sseries finale will get underway at 1:30 CST.

UK trails the all-time series with the Bulldogs, 24-40. MSU tookboth games from the Cats last season in Lexington. UK’s last series winover the ‘Dawgs came in 1998 in Starkville.

All of UK’s SEC games will be broadcast locally on WLXO-96.1-FM.