March 5, 2003
Lexington, Ky. –
The Kentucky pitching staff was the story on this day, as the Bat Cats (5-5, 0-0 SEC) allowed East Tennessee State (4-7, 0-0 SC) only four hits and blanked the Bucs, 3-0. For the game, the UK staff faced only two batters over the minimum.
Kalen Gibson (2-0) earned the victory for UK, who used seven pitchers in the game. Mark Galvin started, going three strong innings, allowing just two hits. Aaron Tennyson, Jimmy Rose, Matt Scott, Gibson, West Harris and Jeff Archer threw one inning each and gave up a combined two hits. Archer picked up his first save of the season.
“We used a lot of different pitchers today and we were really pleased with the great effort we got out of each of them,” Coach Keith Madison said.
The Cats offense struggled early, failing to score in the first six innings, but picked up two runs in the bottom of the seventh on a RBI single from Gordon Tyler and a Bucs error on a Jake Kungl sacrifice bunt attempt. Mike Breyman, who led the offensive attack for the Cats with a 2-for-3 effort, started the inning with a 12-pitch at-bat eventually resulting in a single to right field. After Andrew Levenson reached on a walk Tyler delivered his single through the hole at shortstop to score Breyman. J.B. Schmidt, pinch running for Levenson, came in to score when Kungl laid down a bunt that was fielded by pitcher Josh Kite. Kite’s throw to third base was missed by Shane Byrne, allowing Schmidt to cross the plate. The third Kentucky run was added in the eighth inning when freshman Michael Bertram collected his first hit and RBI as a Wildcat, a single to score Spencer Graeter.
“Our offense struggled some today because we just weren’t very aggressive,” Coach Keith Madison said. “We’re glad to pick up the victory and we’ll build on some things to get ready for this weekend.”
The Cats will return to action on Friday, March 7th, as they play host to a three game series with the Purdue Boilermakers. Friday’s game time is set for 3 p.m. at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
– UK –
