May 6, 2002

One day after pitching his first career complete-game shutout in a 1-0 decision over Arkansas, University of Kentucky junior right-handed pitcher Rob Corrado was named the Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Week the league announced today. It was the first award of its kind for Corrado and the second of the season for the Wildcats.

“I thought I had command of both my fastball and slider and I was able to get ahead in the count,” Corrado said. “I was able to keep them off-balance and force them into a lot of ground balls. The defense made some great plays and they made all the routine plays they needed to make. It was a team effort today and hopefully this will give us momentum for the rest of the season to finish on a positive note.”

In his first SEC start of the season, Corrado sat down 15 of his first 17 batters faced as only six UA batters reached base on the day. The nine innings pitched and nine strikeouts were both career highs and the two hits allowed, both infield singles, represented a season-low for the Wildcat pitching staff. Facing 32 batters and hurling a total of 122 pitches, the Dayton, Ohio, native retired 13 straight from the second to sixth innings. The last time UK held an SEC opponent scoreless was on March 9, 2001 when Scott Wade went the distance in a 6-0 victory at Ole Miss.

“I thought Rob (Corrado) had really good stuff today and he had great fastball location,” Coach Keith Madison said. “He was working a good fastball away from the left-handed hitters with a lot of movement on it and he was able to get a lot of strikeouts on it. He just had great fastball command and I thought that was the difference out there.”

Earlier this season, junior right-hander Joseph Blanton received similar accolades for his 16-strikeout complete game performance over Ball State on March 8.

Corrado and the Wildcats will next play host to Morehead State on Tuesday, May 7 in a 6 p.m. ET game at Cliff Hagan Stadium before resuming SEC action at Vanderbilt this weekend.

– UK –